The Human Heart
by Odangocha
Summary: TakasugiOC. He was a stranded man in territories alien to the heart he forgot he had.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I do not own Gintama, nor the Korean language and culture.**

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><p><em><strong>The Human Heart:<strong>_

**Prologue**

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><p>"Shinsuke-sama! Are you alright?"<p>

The Kiheitai leader staggered into the command room of his spaceship, sweating profusely and panting heavily. He slumped down the moment the doors behind were securely shut, and his three most trusted followers crowded around him, panic evident on their worried faces. Once he has managed to steady his breath, he looked down at his purple robes that were now stained red with blood. His blood.

"Shinsuke-sama, are you alright?" Kijima Matako repeated, kneeling down next to her captain. She watched with a mixture of fear and concern as he bravely stuck two fingers into the foot-long gash embedded dangerously above his left pectoral to test the level of damage inflicted. A restrained groan from him sent her already unsettled nerves into another panicked frenzy. "Shinsuke-sama!"

"We've severely underestimated the Shinra tribe, I daresay." Kawakami Bansai clutched his own injured arm while he surveyed the angry flashes of red and green beams outside from the wide windowscreen. "Who would've thought that they are more unwelcoming to humans than the Harusame Pirates?"

Takechi Henpeita stalked out to the engineers manning the controls and commanded them in a stern voice, "travel full speed ahead through that opening between those two ships!"

"What? We're escaping?" Matako was quick to voice out her displeasure. "Senpai, we can't! The Kiheitai will be deemed as cowa-"

"Do you not understand our situation?" The strategist turned towards her with a grave expression. "We're outnumbered by ten ships to one. If we continue to resist, this ship will no doubt be destroyed and we'll all die."

"But-" A violent tremor threw the Red Bullet off her line of balance.

"Takechi is right." Bansai gripped onto a bar to steady himself. "Retreating for now is the best option, I daresay. Not to mention, some of us are in no condition to fight at the moment." Takasugi felt three pairs of eyes land on him and clenched his fist to suppress his growing frustration. _No condition to fight?_ Since when was he the one who held back his army in battle...?

"Everybody hold on tight!" The head pilot warned as he yanked a lever back and expertly jabbed at blinking buttons. Languid dronings from the turbine engine crescendoed into agitated whirs, and soon, the main Kiheitai battleship propelled itself out of the turbulent fray, but not without getting hit by several stray beams in the ensuing chaos.

It was an extremely fortunate thing that none of the Shinra spaceships gave chase, and the Kiheitai had managed to travel far enough for the enemy fleet to be seen as mere specks. However, it could not be said the same for the flashing red lights and omnious sirens that resounded throughout the vessel.

"S-sir! We have a problem! Our engine's been struck!" One of the engineers informed fearfully while consulting a hologram of the ship.

"Then send someone to fix it!" Takasugi barked. He had managed to stand back up on his two feet, but his body was still quivering uncontrollably.

"I'm afraid that is impossible, sir! The damage is too heavy!" The engineer replied, shrinking under the intensity of his captain's glare. "The only thing we must do now is to land somewhere! But..."

"But what? Speak now!"

"By the time we reach the next planet, the engine would have already failed, and thus we have no choice but to make a crash-landing! Furthermore, we're very unfamiliar with that planet!"

"Well, we don't any other choice, do we? And we Kiheitai are skilled enough to escape a crash-land more or less unscathed, anyway!" Matako snapped, hysterical under the stress of their situation. It didn't help that her beloved leader chose that moment to cough out half a pint of blood and keel over in pain again. "Shinsuke-sama!"

"We won't have a problem, but with his current injuries, Shinsuke will not be able to survive the harsh force of a crash-land, I daresay." Bansai informed, distress seeping into his usually calm voice.

"You seem to be forgetting that we have spacepods!" Takechi, living up to his name of Kiheitai's Strategist, instantly found the solution. "We can obviously use them and survive this with minimum damage."

"You're right for once, Takechi-hentai!"

"You're just too thick to think it through rationally. And don't call me hentai."

"But the thing is, we're only left with one pod after our cargo got hit just now! And its a pod that can only accommodate one person!" The engineer cried out in despair. As far as he was concerned, not all of the Kiheitai are as invincible as the blonde girl thought they were.

"Then we'll put Takasugi-dono in it!" Takechi said.

The gunswoman once again disagreed with his advice. "Are you stupid? How can we send Shinsuke-sama into unfamiliar territory all by himself when he's injured like that! What if he gets attacked? And he obviously needs medical help as quickly as possible!"

"We have no other choice!"

The vessel started jerking violently and the navy-blue atmosphere of a planet gradually enveloped the windowscreen as the ship drew closer to it. The temperature started to go up, and all of the pilots and engineers frantically pressed, pulled and pushed away at the controls.

"We're breaking into the atmosphere! Please send Takasugi-sama into the pod! There won't be much time before we land!" The head pilot hollered over the deafening groan of the engines. Matako reluctantly conceded and followed Bansai and Takechi in helping their captain to the small, circular craft.

"Takasugi-dono, we'll look for you as soon as possible, so please stay close to the pod until we come!" The strategist instructed as he rested the limp body of his leader onto the inclined seat, while Bansai pressed the buttons required to activate the launch. The three watched in a mixture of concern and morbid fascination as the purple-haired rebel nodded feebly and patted at the hilt of his katana to ensure that it was still with him; they've never seen their captain look so weak and vulnerable before, and the sight was beyond unsettling.

Takasugi himself cannot remember when the last time he got this wounded was. No, wait, he can; the Joi War. Or perhaps, his injuries right now aren't as bad as those he received in that war, but they still hurt as hell. He was losing a lot of blood, and he could feel himself slipping in and out of consciousness. The last things he remembered before he completely blacked out were blinding flashes of blue, white and orange, intense heat, and a starry night sky that reminded him of the times when he had spent star-gazing with Gintoki, Zura and Shouyou-sensei before.

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><p><strong>Author's Note: Hey! This prologue isn't much, but the next chapter will be out in a day or so, so do stay tuned to it!<strong>

**This is my second Gintama fanfic, so I would greatly appreciate it if you readers give me any pointers to improve on it! Unfortunately (or maybe more like fortunately), I've already deleted my first Gintama fanfic, Asinine, due to the lack of a good plot and a nonexpandable OC. :( But for those who have read it before, I'm sure you noticed that I've transferred the Asato concept over here, hehe! **

**As always, please leave a review and make a girl happy! :D**


	2. The Human Heart Is A Curious Thing

One could say that Kijima Matako lives up to her ephitet; especially when she was currently zipping and cutting through long grasses like a bullet, and it did (or rather, didn't) help that she was soaked crimson in blood.

She finally reached a clearing which held several other equally ensanguined men. "Bansai-senpai! I've already searched the area here! Shinsuke-sama is nowhere to be seen! We have to move to somewhere else to find him right now!"

"No, that would be very unadvisable, I daresay." The teal-haired musician looked up from his broken shamisen and scanned the bunch of groaning men. "We've lost half of the crew in the crash, and the remaining ones are too injured to move. Even Takechi is still out cold."

"Who cares about that Lolicon! Shinsuke-sama is more important!" The blonde clenched her fists, tears stinging her eyes. "What if Shinsuke-sama dies from his wounds because we're too late to save him? What if he's being attacked or-"

"Just what kind of trust do you have in him? Shinsuke is strong. He won't die so easily." Bansai gazed at a shrivelled plant that was swaying in the gentle night breeze, illuminated by a small bonfire he set up. "But that chest wound might be a problem. Who would've thought that the lucky hit that Shinra General had managed to land would be so severe?"

"That's why we have to-"

"We won't be able to do anything under this cover of the night. Chances are that even if we find him, we would probably step on his body because we can't see where we're going." That effectively shut the gunswoman's mouth. The musician then stood up from the rock he was sitting on. "Furthermore, as you said, we're in unfamiliar territory. Who knows what kind of predators lurk in the shadows? We should wait for the light of the day."

The two turned around simultaneously to look at their fallen, half-demolished spacecraft which was burning in flames half a kilometre away from their makeshift refuge camp. Matako felt a small twinge in her weary heart while Bansai assessed the surroundings through his sunglasses, which were slightly cracked from the impact of the crash. The air and flora of the planet are similar to Earth's, so the environment proved to be accomodating enough to humans. In fact, from what he has seen and experienced so far, the place could pass off as an un-urbanised version of their home planet. It could be said that they are currently stranded in an alien counterpart of the savannas in Africa, and Bansai hoped it wouldn't be as dry, and if they did find any liquid, it would be safe for consumption.

"Tomorrow, when the ship has cooled off, we'll try to rig up the wires and radios to contact the other Kiheitai fleets for help. Rest well for the night now. Shinsuke could've landed anywhere on this planet. Only God knows how far that is." The teal-haired samurai fixed his broken headphones in place, while the blonde gunswoman reluctantly made herself comfortable on the surprisingly soft grass.

"I wonder where Shinsuke-sama is."

"Don't we all."

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><p><em><strong>Chapter One:<strong>_

**The Human Heart Is A Curious Thing**

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><p><em>Where...am I?<em>

Takasugi pried open his leadened eyelid, slowly blinking to focus his hazy vision onto what seemed like the ceiling of a shoddy old hut. One by one, he regained control of his senses and instincts, then tried to move his body, but realised with horror that he was unable to do so. If even the simple act of opening his eye required so much of his energy to perform, then just how weak and defenseless is he now...? Straining all the muscles in his neck and shoulders, the Kiheitai leader lifted his head slightly off the ground to examine his immobilised body. A sharp, rancid stench stung his nostrils and he caught a glimpse of the shabby bandages that encased his entire torso before letting his head fall back with an exhausted gasp.

"_Halmeoni_! He woke up! He woke up!" A distinctively adolescent voice yelled somewhere on his far right and before he knew it, about a dozen pairs of wide, mismatched-coloured eyes were peering curiously at him. Even though they obviously belonged to children, Takasugi made a move to draw his sword out of reflex, but ended up causing a surge of intense pain to shoot up his right arm instead and a red liquid started to seep out onto the bandages around his right bicep. He winced and let out gasps to calm his nerves down, but even breathing caused some sort of ache in his chest. The group of children backed a step away, then made a parting in their small circle to let an elderly woman pass through.

"_Halmeoni_! We didn't do anything! He wanted to move but then he started bleeding! It wasn't our fault, really!" One of the kids proclaimed desperately while clinging onto the long robes of the woman, while his other friends fervently nodded to attest to his statement.

"Alright, alright." She chuckled and patted his head affectionately before kneeling down to unwrap the newly-soaked dressings. Takasugi narrowed his olive eye and growled at her despite his predicament. "Oi, old woman, where am I?"

"My, are all the people of your kind as rude as you?" She tutted goodnaturedly in her scratchy voice, then turned to the boy to place the dirty bandages onto his hands. "Please throw them away, and fetch a clean roll for me, dear." He nodded enthusiastically and bounded off, happy to help.

"Answer me."

"You're on Planet Asa," she answered, her grizzled grin missing a left canine. "If I'm not wrong, you are an Earthling, no?"

Takasugi did not reply, choosing to scan the figures around him instead. As a space traveler, he has heard of the Asato tribespeople, but never encountered them before. They are one of the few Amanto races that are relatively human in appearance and behavior, similar to the Yato clan. The only difference is that the Asato are generally peaceful and reserved beings, and while the Yato have their pale skin, the Asato possess mixed-coloured eyes. The Joi extremist inwardly heaved a sigh of relief that at least he was in no form of danger whatsoever right now.

"_Halmeoni_! I brought an extra roll just in case!" The little boy from before ran into the room and thrust out the bandages, seemingly proud of himself. He then joined the rest of his friends in watching the elderly woman dress the foreigner's reopened wound with unveiled fascination, occasionally slapping their hands to their mouths when the purple-haired man flinched.

_Is her name Halmeoni? _Takasugi thought as he cast a disinterested eye onto the woman. She should be nearing her eighties, but the bright glint from her youth never left her mismatched eyes (her left one was red, while the other a greyish-blue). "Are you the one who found me?"

"That would be _noona_!" A small boy beside her chirped, eager to interact with the foreigner. "She found you in a field in the mountains three days ago! You were really hurt! Were you attacked by a mountain bear or something?"

The girl next to him joined in. "Maybe he got tricked by a _Kumiho_ and fell down!"

"But I thought _Kumihos_ are good?"

"No, they're bad!"

And soon enough, the other children participated in the heated debate of whether this _Kumiho_ was evil or not. Only God knows what it is. Takasugi closed his eye in irritation; learning that he was out cold for three days was bad enough, and he didn't need twelve sets of squeaky vocal chords to add on to the accumulating pain in his head. Thankfully, the old woman was quick to calm the little imps down. "What did I say about keeping quiet? See, you've made Earthling-_ssi_ mad!"

The kids immediately adopted a horrified and guilty look, then bowed down and chorused with utmost sincerity: "We're sorry, Earthling-_ssi_!"

Takasugi opened his eye again and frowned. Not with irritation, but with mild bewilderment. He has never been apologised to so wholeheartedly over such a trivial matter before (with the exclusion of Matako, but even hers had a superficial hint to it), and astonishingly, he found himself unsure on how to react. He decided to settle with a dismissive shift of his head to face the ceiling again.

"Alright, we're done here." Halmeoni announced, then stood up to wash her hands in a basin somewhere. "Don't try to move, or the medicine won't set in and you'll open your wounds again."

"The medicine's really smelly, but it works really well!" A girl informed him cheerily. "Last time, I had a really bad fall, and my knee really hurt, but the medicine made it all better really fast!"

Another boy nodded, piping up. "_Halmeoni_'s and_ noona_'s medicines are the best!"

Takasugi inhaled sharply through his nose and suppressed the urge to groan out that he couldn't care less about the girl's fall, and that they should all just shut up. This is unbelievable; firstly, he, Takasugi Shinsuke, the feared and powerful leader of the Kiheitai, was rendered almost half-dead by a mere Shinra general who got in the hit through sheer dumb luck. Secondly, he, the very man behind one of space's most notorious organizations hell-bent on mass destruction, was under the care of a bunch of _snot-nosed brats and an old woman_? And they're _Amanto_ for Kami's sake! As if to add salt into the wound, that old Amanto woman is currently nudging a spoon of white substance near his mouth.

"Open up, its porridge." She said, a tone of motherly sternness in her voice. "Don't worry, Asato food is pretty much the same as Earth food."

The purple-haired man glared vehemently at her. No way in hell he was going to be spoon-fed like some sort of baby or invalid. He was fully capable of feeding himself, thank you very much.

...Well, once he is able to move, that is... The old woman seemed to understand.

"Burst that ego for once! You think I want to do this too? I have to finish my own chores, you know!" She chided, jerking the spoon closer to him. "You've already gone without food for three days. Don't blame me if you die of malnutrition."

The cogs in Takasugi's mind worked, trying to find reason. The old hag has a point. Furthermore, he needs to regain his strength so that he could get out of this hellhole as soon as possible. Closing his eye and swallowing his pride, Takasugi gingerly parted his lips for the elderly woman to pour the bland liquid down his throat. When the bowl was emptied, she stood up to clean and keep it away, leaving a spot for the children to fill.

"Earthling-_ssi_, how do you like it?"

"Can I feed you next time?"

"When you get better, I'll let you eat my mom's food!"

Takasugi chose to ignore them and feigned sleep. Their high-pitched screaming and innecessant giggles grated on his ears and nerves, and that old woman wasn't any better either. They may be his saviors, but the Kiheitai leader made it a point to destroy this dingy place and its annoying inhabitants the moment he gets these bandages off.

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><p>It had been another three more days before Takasugi was able to move around. <em>The children were right<em>, he thought grudgingly, _the medicine does work wonders_. His right arm was more or less healed already, though it did ache whenever he strained it too much. The chest wound was another story however; even jogging would have him keel over in pain again. He was told that it would take another couple of weeks before he was completely fit to leave. At least he was able to feed himself right now.

The Kiheitai leader dealt a swift slash to the tree in front of him, then slid his katana back into its sheath. To a layman, it would have looked like a professionally smooth motion, and the tree promptly fell backwards in a loud thud. However, Takasugi knew better; his movements were still too slow, and he hadn't recover complete control over his right arm yet, as evident from the jagged edges of the tree trunk where his swords has struck. He might as well have used an axe to chop it down instead.

"Earthling-_ssi_! That was so cool!" Admiring calls were made from behind and the Joi extremist turned to nail a glare on the excited bunch of kids that were running up to him. He had once played with the cruel thought of testing his current swordskills on one of the children, but decided that it wouldn't do him any good and settled for medium-sized trees instead. The moment they reached a metre away from him, the purple-haired human tartly walked away, trying to ignore their persistant gushing.

"Earthling-_ssi_! Can you teach me how to use a sword? I want to be as cool as you!"

"Do you like cutting trees, Earthling-_ssi_? You do it all the time!"

"Earthling-_ssi_!"

Despite his irritation, Takasugi found it curious that so far, nobody had asked for his name, choosing to call him _Earthling-ssi_ instead (of course, he didn't bother asking for theirs, and refered to them as 'Oi' only if he needed assistance). In fact, none of them had asked him any personal questions at all. The children only enquired about Earth, whether it was similar to Planet Asa or not, and he would just grunt in reply or give curt answers or just ignore them altogether. He was treated as if he was one of them, and there wasn't a single suspicion raised against him, only a few inquisitive glances from passing adults. Takasugi quickened his pace, effectively losing the group of little brats. It irked him how they were able to accept a complete stranger and so foolishly place their trust in him. He didn't even feed them any stories or lies about himself! If somebody had appeared in the Kiheitai ship like that, no doubt he or she would be killed in a blink of an eye. Speaking of the Kiheitai, just how in the world (or universe) is he going to get back to them?

They were so similar in appearance, yet so different in ideologies. Takasugi decided that the Asato is just a stupid race. Even Sakamoto had enough brains to be wary of people.

The Joi extremist soon found himself standing on a short hill that granted him an overview of the lake below. If there was anything he liked about Planet Asa, it would be the terrain. It seemed that the Asato were incredibly underdeveloped despite being aliens. They worked manually, farmed using simple tools like sickles and rakes and drew water from wells and rivers. Because of their primitive lifestyle, much of the planet went unpolluted and was able to retain it's natural rustic beauty. Though Takasugi found it annoyingly inconvenient, it reminded him of Earth from his childhood. Earth before technology was introduced. Earth before the Amanto came and messed it all up.

"Earthling-_ssi_, you're gonna break your sword!"

A high-pitched voice broke Takasugi's train of thoughts and he released the handle of his katana, not realising that he had been gripping on to it the whole time. He turned his head slightly to eye the intruder. It was that boy who fetched the bandages for that Halmeoni hag. Now that he noticed it, this boy had been the most persistant and talkative of the lot. He'd always be the first to follow Takasugi around and the last to leave, often firing a barrage of questions and telling him things that he didn't need, want nor care to know.

The boy ambled up to the Joi patriot's side, plopping down on the grass and gazing into the lake. A silly smile graced his childish face and he looked up to the purple-haired man. "I think that my planet is very pretty. Is Earth this pretty too?"

Takasugi didn't answer. If he did, it would have come out as a lie eitherway.

"I think that Earthling-_ssi_'s sword is very pretty too! And the way Earthling-_ssi_ uses it is just so cool!"

The human mentally scoffed. A sword, pretty? This boy is too naïve for his own good.

"But... I think that Earthling-_ssi_ shouldn't use it to cut down trees, because if you cut down too many of them, my planet won't be so pretty anymore! And then I won't think that Earthling-_ssi_'s sword will be pretty too."

The sentence intrigued Takasugi enough for him to direct his eye down to the boy, trying to comprehend the meaning of it. Perhaps this little kid was deeper than he thought. With an amused smirk, he merely grunted. "Hn."

The Asato boy smiled up at him again before returning his line of sight to the scenery. All of a sudden, he tugged onto the man's robes and pointed to a range of mountains in the distance. "Earthling-_ssi_, that's where _noona_ found you!"

Takasugi narrowed his eye. If that was where he was found, then the spacepod couldn't be anywhere far from it. However, he decided that there was no urgency to return to it; recovering would be his top priority for now. Furthermore, he would require his full strength if he was to scale that mountainous region.

"Oh, that's right! Earthling-_ssi_, you haven't met _noona_ before, have you?" The boy jumped up excitedly, as though he had just thought of the best idea ever. "How about we go surprise her at her house? She wouldn't expect you to be there!"

He had already skipped off before Takasugi could even reject. Exhaling through his nose and closing his eye, the Kiheitai leader decided to just follow the boy. Besides, there are lots of questions he needed to ask this Noona person pertaining to her discovery of him and the pod. He just hoped that she won't get on his nerves like the other Asato did.

Despite her being his main savior, Takasugi has never met her before, only hearing about her from the children's idle chatter. Apparently, she was often so choked up with household chores that she only had time to visit him late in the night, when he would be asleep. Another odd thing he noticed was that the children refered to her as two names; the girls would call her Unni while the boys Noona. Takasugi downplayed it to some weird Asato culture thing. Not that he cared much.

The duo approached a small wooden house with a straw roof, similar to the other quaint infrastructure in the village. Alien chickens with double crowns lazily pecked at the ground in front, but a sudden clatter from inside the hut disrupted their peace and sent them clucking away and flapping their flightless wings agitatedly.

"Earthling-_ssi_, there's something wrong..." The alien boy clutched at the human's robes, visibly disturbed. "Nobody should be home now. _Noona_ should be in the fields."

Takasugi resisted the urge to pinch his nosebridge; trust kids to overreact. "Then maybe she came back early or something."

"No, today is harvesting day!" The Asato whipped his head up, worry marring his young features. "What if there are mountain bandits inside right now?"

"There is no reason for bandits to raid an impoverished house like this."

"_Noona_ has many precious herbs! Earthling-_ssi_, take out your sword! Use it to scare those baddies away!" The kid seemed unfazed by the apathetic reply, increasing the frequency of his tugs on the samurai's kimono. "Earthling-_ssi_!"

"Alright, you brat." Takasugi growled, tired of the boy's incessant whining. He stepped up to the shabby hut and pushed out the hilt of his katana with his thumb. "I'll go _check_ it out, if it entertains you so."

He rounded a corner leading to the kitchen, where he believed the clatter came from. Though he walked in a leisurely pace, the ex-Joi soldier kept his vigilance up out of habit. Stopping at the open door and flattening himself against the wall, he picked up a few rustling sounds from inside and placed his hand on his sword. _Maybe the boy was right, _he thought. A figure suddenly shot up from behind a pile of firewood and Takasugi instinctively whipped out his blade in a flash, pointing it threateningly down at the intruder, who had fell over in shock.

The swordsman narrowed his eye; this trembling girl certainly didn't look like a bandit. Heck, he doubt that she could even steal a grain of rice. She looked around his age, perhaps younger by a year or two, with long, pale wheat-coloured hair. Her mismatched eyes struck a chord of familiarity to Takasugi, but he didn't lower his sword.

"Are you Noona?"

"Eh?"

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><p><strong>Gintoki: Oi, oi, oi! Why is it that Takasugi gets another fanfiction while I don't? I'm the main character of the series after all, and he's the villian! And doesn't this plot remind anybody of that Ava*ar movie?<strong>

**Shinpachi: Isn't that because all girls like bad boys? Ah, you're right, Gin-san! Except that the Asato are in danger... they got the wrong person to crash into their land.**

**Kagura: Takasugi's gonna destroy them all! And Ava*ar's a rip-off of Pocahon*as anyway!**

**Gintoki: Yeah, that's what he'll do. The authoress should stop this before he does. And her writing isn't so good, is it? I mean, she repeats her words and phrases over and over again. Is her vocabulary range really that small?**

**Kagura: You're right, Gin-chan! She could only refer to Takasugi as 'the Kiheitai leader', 'Joi extremist' or 'the purple-haired human'. How limited!**

**Shinpachi: Oi, don't get so mean, guys. She did think of 'samurai' in the end. But is she alright? She's treading dangerous waters here. Pulling off Takasugi's character in a setting like this will be kind of tough...**

**Gintoki: Exactly, Pattsuan! She might even be portraying us here incorrectly. See, you haven't even said a single 'Dondake' yet!**

**Shinpachi: Oi! It's not like I say it all the time! Don't make it sound like its the only thing I can say!**

**Yamazaki: Mada mada dane!**

**Shinpachi: Why the hell is Yamazaki here? But he has a point. The authoress still has lots more to work on, and she would need all the help, advice, comments and opinions of you readers! So...**

**Gintoki, Shinpachi, Kagura, Yamazaki: PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW!**

**Kagura: -aru!**


	3. The Human Heart Is An Intriguing Thing

"Are you Noona?"

"Eh?"

Takasugi hardened his glare, not wanting to repeat himself. The girl continued staring up at him in utter shock, before sense finally kicked in and she blinked a few times. Then, she-

...She _laughed_...?

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><p><em><strong>Chapter Two:<strong>_

**The Human Heart Is An Intriguing Thing**

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><p>The Kiheitai leader didn't know if he should feel offended or not. Here he was, pointing an absurdly sharp blade at a defenseless girl which could no doubt decapitate her in a second if he wished for it to. But instead of begging for her life or even recoiling in terror, she chose to laugh and <em>giggle<em>? It is official; the Asato has joined Prince Hata in the ranks of alien stupidity.

"_Noona_!" A short figure sprinted into the scene and planted himself in between the two, facing the samurai with an alarmed expression. "Earthling-_ssi_! Don't hurt her!"

Takasugi drew back his sword, sheathing it while still holding the girl in his stare. She stood up and brushed dirt off her plain robes, then gave the boy an easy smile. "Seoki, what are you doing here?"

"_Noona_! I should be asking you that instead!" The Asato boy whipped around to pout up at her. "Earthling-_ssi_ and I wanted to surprise you after you come back from harvesting, but when we came, we heard something and thought that those mountain bandits have come to raid your house! We were so worried!"

"_Aigoo_... I'm sorry, Seoki." The girl flashed an apologetic yet amused smile and ruffled his hair fondly. "Actually, I just snuck out of the fields, because I really cannot wait till tonight to speak to Earthling-_ssi_. It is so unfair; you all can talk to him anytime you want! I was about to leave for his hut but accidentally toppled over a pan of herbs, and then you two came."

"It's okay, _noona_. Earthling-_ssi_ doesn't really speak to us much anyway." Both Asato then looked at the human together, but Takasugi couldn't care less about the boy and his statement. His eye was still fixed on the girl.

"So you are Noona."

Either she found his voice funny or had some sort of condition (Takasugi was betting on the latter), because the girl was reduced to yet another bout of light laughter. This time however, the Joi extremist was less than impressed with her reaction and seriously considered adding her to his list of people to kill. After finally calming down, she returned her mismatched eyes to his face. "You can't call me _noona_. You're not supposed to."

"_Eom-ma-ya_! I forgot to teach Earthling-_ssi_ our terms!" The boy, -Seoki, was it?-, slapped a small hand to his face. "Earthling-_ssi_, sorry!"

"I bet you didn't teach him anything about us at all..." The girl sighed, shoulders slumping. "Did you even tell him about dinner tonight?"

"_Aniyo,_ I forgot!" He wailed and bit his lip. "Earthling-_ssi_, after every good harvest, the whole village comes together to celebrate. You have to come tonight! There's lots of yummy food!"

The older Amanto chuckled and started ushering him out. "Alright, go and play with the others now. You've surprised me enough already. Let _noona_ talk to Earthling-_ssi_!" Seoki nodded brightly and bounded off, leaving his two seniors alone in the musty kitchen.

"I apologise. You must have been pretty confused for the past days." The girl smiled warmly, interlacing her hands behind her back. "_Noona_ is what younger boys call older girls, so I found it very funny when you called me that, and how you assumed it was my name. Did I make you upset when I laughed? I'm sorry."

Takasugi ignored her explanation entirely. "Were you not afraid when a sword was mere inches away from your face?"

"Well, I _was_ extremely shocked at first, but when I heard you call me _noona_..." Another giggle escaped, then she smiled up pleasantly at him. "And besides, you wouldn't have hurt me."

Now it was Takasugi's turn to laugh, albeit his had a malicious tone to it. _Wouldn't_, she said...? "What makes you so sure? I could've killed you right there and then and both you and I won't even feel a thing."

"But you didn't."

The Kiheitai leader frowned, darkening his gaze on the alien girl who had turned around to pick a pot off the ground to put it on a shelf behind. She had a point; normally, if somebody had suddenly shot up like that, -especially if that person in question was an Amanto-, Takasugi's reflexes would have instantly striked him or her down in less than a heartbeat. So why did his hand stop when he saw those mismatched eyes...? Furthermore, how did she know that he 'wouldn't hurt her'?

"Here's something to help with that wound." Takasugi snapped out of his thoughts when the Asato brandished a weird-smelling paper bag at him, which he took nonchantly.

Time to get down to business. "Was the spacecraft I was in very badly damaged?"

"Ah, you mean that huge, gray metal thing?" She tapped a finger to her chin, looking away to recall her memory. "There...was very big dent on the side... And almost all the red chords around you were broken and sparking off, but that's all though. Is that considered very badly damaged?"

The earthling tipped his head down slightly in contemplation. From what she had relayed, it would probably need quite a fixing before it could send a signal to the rest of the fleets. Damn it, more delay to his departure from this cesspool. But...

_If the wirings were that impaired... _He raised his olive-green eye to meet the girl's miscoloured ones. _She ran the risk of getting electrocuted just so to save a near-dead stranger who isn't even of her kind. Only fools like Gintoki and Zura would do that. _Why?

She merely cocked her head curiously at his intense gaze, then suddenly straightened up. "Ah! I almost forgot." Awkwardly extending her right hand out, she gave a sheepish smile. "This is how your kind does introductions, right? My name is-"

"Suseri!" A familiar scratchy voice shouted from outside and the two turned to see an old Asato woman walking towards them with her hand on her hips. "Ah, _jja-jeung na_... What are you doing there? You're supposed to be in the fields! You have lots of work to do, you know!"

"_Aissi..._!" The girl then swivelled back to the purple-haired man. "Well, you heard _halmeoni_. You've met her before right? And that's not really her- _Ahh_!"

She got cut off when the grizzled woman yanked at her right ear with one hand, visibly annoyed. "Who taught you to skive off work when everyone else is busy? Huh?"

"Ahh! I'm sorry, _halmeoni_! I just wanted to talk to Earthling-_ssi_ before the dinner because I may not get a chance to because everyone else will want to talk to him too!" Suseri rambled on, voice increasing in pitch and speed as she squirmed under the painful grasp. "_Ahhhhh_!"

Halmeoni tutted. "_Jjin-jja_..."

Finally being released, the younger Asato rubbed tenderly at her sore ear and shot a sulky look at her elder. Then, shuffling outside, she turned to wave at the purple-haired man before jogging off to resume her chores. "See you at dinner, I guess!"

Takasugi watched idly as the girl disappeared down the gravelly road, her waist-length loose ponytail bouncing up and down with each step. He detected movement from the corner of his eye and saw that the old woman had drawn up an old wooden stool to sit on.

"So I take it that your name is not Halmeoni?" The samurai leant back onto a wall, slinking his left arm under his robes and suddenly longing for his smoking pipe.

"No. _Halmeoni_ means grandma." Her throat rumbled and she scratched at a sagging cheek. "But I've been called that for so long that I can't even remember what my own name used to be. You can just call me that too."

"That would be quite a mouthful for me." Takasugi drawled, the left corner of his lips quirking up. "I'll stick to Old Hag."

"Keh," she smirked despite her irritated tone. "Cheeky brat."

Silence filled up the space between the two, broken only by the rustling of dried leaves in the wind and the chirpings of birds and other critters before the Asato decided to strike up a conversation.

"That granddaughter of mine." No wonder the girl's eyes were so familiar; they were inherited. But, there was also something else that he couldn't place his finger on... "She has to learn that she cannot afford to take any breaks in this hard life that she leads. Especially when her parents are not here to support her."

"So she's an orphan?" he stated more than queried, the word reminding him of his own past.

The old woman's reply was violent; she slapped the side of her stool forcefully and exclaimed in a shrill voice, "touch wood, touch wood! Don't curse my son and his wife. They're just working for the King in the mainlands at the moment."

"Oh? You have a king?" Takasugi asked, genuinely interested. Political information like this can come in handy in the future.

"Every group has to have a leader. Ours just happens to be a tyrannical womanizer. But the palace pays well, that's why both of them left for it even though the distance is so great." Gnarling up her own wrinkled face, she looked up to eye the human's. "What? Planet Asa is actually quite advanced, you know. You just happened to fall into the poor, rural side of it."

"Just my luck, then."

"Better here than there, I tell you." The old woman shifted her gaze to the uneven sillhouettes of mountains in the far distance. "The mainland is corrupted. The government is corrupted. The people there are corrupted."

To think that he could find something that they both agreed on. A mirthless, insane chuckle escaped from Takasugi's lips, and he rested his head on the old wood to look up at the darkening sky.

"Everything is, actually."

* * *

><p><em>Simpletons find joy in anything. <em>Takasugi realised that as he observed the bustling, lively crowd. When somebody danced too close to the bonfire and had his sleeve caught in it, they laughed. When somebody tripped and fell, _on purpose_, they laughed. When some kid asked for his third bowl of rice, they laughed. Was it in the Asato village blood to find amusement in even the most inane of things? They're really all idiots.

...But he couldn't say that he hated them. The Asato are distinctively Korean, thus the Earthling didn't find their way of life too foreign as both their cultures shared some similarities unlike most of the other alien races. They treated him beyond well; even better the tribe head by giving him the privilage of starting the feast and bringing him copious amounts of alcohol (apparently, theirs was known as _soju, _and considered something of a luxury within the poor village). Being well fed and watered kept the samurai content, but what he really needed now was a smoke. As the saying goes, absence makes the heart grow fonder (though it isn't exactly appropiate in this context), and he longed for the intoxicating fumes to waft into his system again. Why didn't he make sure that his kiseru was with him when he entered the pod too?

The Asato were intriguing enough for Takasugi to idly discern more about them. They spoke in their native tongue, though the youths prefered to use the modern universal language; japanese (the samurai had felt a certain sense of childish pride when he realised that, but didn't show it). He had seen nearly every face in the hamlet, from the village idiot to the village belle,-who had continuously batted her long lashes at him throughout the event-, and there really wasn't a single pair of eyes that were of the same colour. As with any other archaic civilization, only the boys were given education in literature, along with a handful of selected girls. Everyone else could only learn speech from their families, so there are some unfortunate ones whose articulation are barely comprehensible, like that guy on the other side who was now heatedly thumping the log he was sitting on.

"Listen! Listen me!" He held up a large brown jug. "This the Asa's most strong _soju_! See who can drink it most in one mouth, yah? Earthling-_ssi_ can play too if want!"

The lanky man then took a gulp of the liquid and spluttered out after a second. Guffawing and swiping at his dripping chin, he held out the ceramic pitcher to the next person and joined in with the rowdy cheering of the crowd. This process was repeated as the jug travelled down each person in the large circle, the longest swig belonging to a hardened cattle farmer. Takasugi watched as the jar was eventually passed on to a certain yellow-haired girl sitting seven seats away, the faintest of smirks on his face. Suseri brought it close to her mouth and instantly grimaced at the stench, then laughingly shoved the jug to Halmeoni without even taking a sip. Unlike her granddaughter, the old hag held her liquor well; almost matching up to the farmer, but swung it away when she nearly reached his record and coughed, muttering amusedly under her breath, "fools."

Finally, Takasugi held in his hand the jug, gently shaking it to estimate the quantity. About a third of the pitcher left, tops? The villagers watched him intently, obviously paying more attention to the foreigner than their own kind. The guy who started this impromptu competition raised his hands and clapped, whistling challengingly. Smirk growing wider, the Kiheitai leader threw his head backwards and guzzled the clear liquid, trying to ignore the intense burn in the back of his throat which stung at his eyes too. Not bad, he admitted, though he just ensured himself a killer headache the next morning. Takasugi slammed the empty jug onto the ground victoriously, and admiring cheers and cat-calls erupted from all around.

The village head, an elderly man with overly long eyebrows and a severe hunch, stood up and waved his walking staff around to call for attention, which he soon received. Then, facing the purple-haired foreigner, he croaked out a string of words in Korean before sending a look to Suseri. Getting her cue, the young Asato turned to Takasugi with a smile, translating what the elder had said for him. "The village head welcomes you to our tribe, and insists that you'll ask for anything you need or want, no matter how simple it is. We don't get visitors very often, you see."

_Heh_, the human thought somewhat cruelly, _as if this place can provide me with what I want. _The old man then spoke again, to which Suseri was pleasantly surprised at. Nodding, she faced their guest once more, this time slightly abashed. "He also says that since I'm the one who found you, it would only be right if I, uh, take care of you until you leave too."

Takasugi remained silent. _Well, better her than that Seoki kid_, he rationalised. Closing his eye, he nodded concedingly and the aliens returned to their boisterous celebration. He lifted his eyelid again to look at some dancing couples (if that sort of weird movement was considered a dance), and then directed his line of vision around the place, taking in the various delighted expressions and finally letting it land on his newly appointed host, who had suddenly appeared next to him.

"Here." Suseri placed a long wooden pipe in his hand, and the samurai noticed with a jolt of glee that it was emitting smoke. He took a long drag on it, savouring it's taste and feel in his lungs and exhaled relievingly. He turned to face the girl, whom he had felt significantly more positive towards. "You don't seem like the type to smoke."

"I don't!" She raised two hands up to enforce her statement, then pointed to a middle-ager sitting opposite them. "It belongs to that tobacco farmer there. I saw how you were eyeing his pipe so intensely earlier on just now."

She only received a languid trail of smoke as a reply.

"Well, it seems that you'll be stuck with me for the next couple of weeks, so I should at least know your name." The Asato grinned and held out her right hand like she did in the afternoon.

The Joi extremist eyed it contemplatively, and then broke into a jeering chuckle. "You can't say and do it like that. You're not supposed to."

She held on to her smile, not the least bit affected by his jab. When he didn't continue, she withdrew her arm and tucked it in between her chest and knees. "Okay, Earthling-_ssi_."

"Your -_ssi_ is the same as our -san, right?" The japanese man asked, though only for the sake of it.

"Yep!" Suseri nodded cheerfully, thrilled that he seemed interested. "Do you want to know some other honorifics?"

"No."

"How about words?"

"No."

"Hmm... then phrases? Or some local songs?"

Takasugi didn't bother.

The girl's smile faltered a little, but she did not give up. "Earthling-ssi, do you know that thanks to you, my chores are lessened so I'll have more time to spend with you?"

He puffed on the pipe before forcing out a disinterested "Is that so?" without so much as sparing her a glance. However, a sigh made him turn and he saw her resting her chin in her palms, elbows propped up on her knees and a dejected look on her face. Not because Takasugi had not paid her any attention (as with Matako), but because she was genuinely upset that she was unable to entertain him. The ex-Joi soldier narrowed his eye, but decided to leave it as it is and returned to smoking the pipe. Then, a teenaged girl skipped up to them and grabbed her fellow Asato's hands, tugging on them excitedly.

"_Unni!" _was the only word that the purple-haired human recognised, everything else was babbled in their native tongue. The older Amanto then grinned and nodded, replying in the same language while standing up.

"Ah, Earthling-_ssi_ can come too!" The newcomer added as if he understood what they had said, shooting a shy glance at him.

"_Aniyo_," Suseri said, shaking her head. "Earthling-_ssi_ isn't interested. We shouldn't bother him anymore. Let's go!"

Takasugi's eyebrows twitched. Was that a hint of... _spite_ in her tone?

An amused smirk tugged at his lips as he watched the two disappear into the crowd, and noted that Suseri hadn't informed him of her departure. Not even an apologetic glance was given, as though he didn't matter or wasn't there. Nobody has ever snubbed him like that before, and so subtly too. Despite his reluctance, Takasugi guessed that staying in this village won't be as bad as he thought it will be.

...The alcohol must be getting to his head.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: Hey! So... How do you guys like Suseri? I hope she isn't too girly. I originally made her a total Yamato Nadeshiko, but decided against and toned it down in the end haha! To be honest, I'm not too happy with this chapter, but I really wanted to upload it before the week starts, so there ya have it! Some of the dialogue here isn't really connected, in my opinion. :** **I'll probably rewrite this in the future... And I just have to add in that Takasugi is a really complex character. So hard to write him argh. Sorry if I portrayed him too grouchy-moody in this one, but I figured if anybody was forced to stay in some old, backward village, s/he would get pissy too.**

**AND A BIG FAT THANKS TO NuramagoFan, little101 and Cintamanti FOR THE REVIEWS! Haha well I won't deny that the lack of reviews somewhat discourage me from writing more, but I just can't stop my hands from tapping all over the keyboard. Especially with those darned plot bunnies hopping all over in my head (does anybody even use the words 'plot bunny' now...?). And besides, as long as I get a review, I'm a happy girl :D so now I'm three happy girls! :D :D :D LOL**

**Alright, that's all for now! **

**P/S: I'm sorry if I irritated anyone by constantly changing the summary of this story. OTL Please forgive me...**

**...and leave an opinion/comment/I'LLJUSTSAYITAREVIEW too! ;P**


	4. The Human Heart Is Appreciative

_Somebody..._

_Anybody..._

_...Get Takechi to stop making those damned Edo Developmental Youth opposition signboards...!_

Takasugi forced himself up, his head throbbing excruciatingly and his murderous rage at an all-time high. Pressing fingers to his left temple, he squinted through the nauseatic pain, ready to direct a glare that could terrify even a shinigami to that idiot paedophile.

Except... It wasn't him that was causing those infuriatingly loud hammering noises. It was a sunburnt middle-ager who was mending a broken picket fence.

_Oh, that's right..._ Takasugi wasn't in his Kiheitai ship anymore; he was in some hillbilly Amanto village. As if to reinforce that fact, memories from yesterday night's celebration accelerated through his mind, compounding the pain afflicted by his already massive headache. He growled in both agony and exasperation, tearing his eye away from the small, squared window and setting it down onto the frayed rug he was provided as a blanket. It was then he caught a whiff of an odd smelling scent coming from his right. Odd, but not unpleasant.

The Joi extremist twisted his head lazily to see a familiar steaming teapot and an empty cup lying about a couple of feet away from his mattress. Taking those strenuous few steps over (he didn't bother to wear his zori), Takasugi poured himself the translucent yellow liquid and took a gulp without waiting for it to cool.

...Her medicines really are the best.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Chapter Three:<strong>_

**The Human Heart Is Appreciative **

* * *

><p>The Sun scorched down ruthlessly on toiling field workers, but generously bathed the crops they were planting in its warmth. Birds zipped through the cloudless sky, and a four-eared dog bounded after it's giggling adolescent owners, who were in turn chasing fluttering butterflies. Takasugi stepped up a sandy trail and found her sitting at a misshapened stone table in front of a great oak.<p>

As he drew closer, he noticed that she was doing, -his eyebrow arched up-, _embroidery_?

"Yo."

Suseri raised her miscoloured eyes to look at him, but blinked them back down to her needlework without saying anything. The purple-haired man smirked amusedly, padded over to the treestump next to hers and took a seat, resting his left elbow on the tabletop to leave his hand hanging off it. "You're still upset?"

No reply. Needle in-

"You are."

-and needle out. Still no words from her.

Takasugi rolled his eye, but the smirk stayed on. "The pot of remedy you left told me otherwise though."

"Who said it was from me?" Finally, even if her eyes didn't leave the stitching. "Was there a note?"

"I saw that pot in your house before."

"_Halmeoni_ must have left it there." She sniffed, then adding for good measure, "obviously."

"Oh?" The human cocked his head slightly and proceeded to lift himself off the stump. "I'll go thank her now."

"Wait!"

Takasugi cast a half-lidded eye down onto her, his lips curling. The girl stiffened, and then swiftly snapped back to her work, her actions faster and more forceful. "_Halmeoni_'s doing afternoon exercises with all the other old people now. You can... You can thank me."

"Heh. Thanks, then." The Kiheitai leader said, sitting back down. However, Suseri wasn't appeased, as evident from her huff. "You didn't mean that."

And he didn't deny.

"Oh well." She sighed, continuing her stitching. "That was leftover brew anyway."

The samurai held the girl in his stare, starting to grow a little tired of her antics. She seemed to have picked up on that, because her eyes flickered over before she set the needle and threads down to grin at him. "Alright, alright. I was just joking! I'm not upset at all! If I still am, then how petty would that make me?"

Takasugi didn't supply that with an answer, opting to look up at the endless blue instead.

"And just to let you know, that wasn't really leftover brew. I made it _specially_ for you." He heard while following a flying hawk with his eye. "So... You should do something for me too!"

Suseri found an olive orb looking her up and down. _This girl,_ the Joi extremist thought, _is asking _me_ to do something for her? _His lips quirked up and he rested his left cheek on his knuckles. "Very well. What?"

"Not much." She fiddled with some fabric. "I just want you to tell me your name."

"My name?" An eyebrow arched up. Takasugi wondered what would happen if she (or any of the villagers) did find that out, or rather, the list of crimes that came along with those four characters. The smirk on his face could not grow any wider. "Earthling-shi."

"Tsk." The Amanto shot him a reproachful look, then snatched up the needle to resume sewing. "And your accent's wrong. Its '_ssi_'."

"My bad." The japanese moved his hand to rest it down instead. "I'll tell you when I feel like it."

"Liar," she mumbled, which Takasugi chose to disregard. He reached out to pull on the heap of red silk in front of him, straightening it to study its intricate flower patterns. He can't remember when the last time he saw a girl doing such a traditional thing was (Matako was very much incompetent in handling anything outside of a gun and eating utensils, and almost every Edo girl bought their machine-manufactured textiles from shops). "Don't you have more important chores to do like milking a cow instead of making clothes for your dolls?"

"Not my dolls." She said lightly, paying no heed to his hidden insult. "_Our_ doll. The village's doll."

A pretty face appeared in his mind and the samurai struggled to remember her name. "Nami?"

"Nayu," the Asato corrected. "And making her the best clothes is the top priority of every female for now."

"Is she getting married?"

"Well... hopefully, yes." Suseri ceased her embroidering so that she could explain properly. "Every five years or so, the prettiest and most well-bred girl of each village in Asa must be sent to the King for him to pick as a concubine. Nayu's the one in my batch."

Takasugi recalled his memories from the night before. True, with long, straight obsidian hair and porcelain skin, that girl was indeed a sight for sore eyes. And no wonder only some girls are provided with education; they're to be groomed. "But what if the King doesn't like some of them?"

"Then they'll just be sent to work as palace performers." She said simply, resuming her stitching of a yellow petal. "Even that kind of life is way easier than ours, so any girl who gets chosen is lucky, I guess."

"Then are you disappointed that you aren't chosen?" The purple-haired human asked somewhat cruelly, wanting to hear her response.

"Abit," Suseri admitted. "But even if I am the prettiest, there's no way I can leave this place. The villagers cannot have only _halmeoni_ as their doctor, and somebody needs to take care of that old woman."

"But don't you want to?"

She pushed the needle in but held it there, casting her eyes down. The man sitting beside noted that the atmosphere around had gotten significantly heavier.

"...I would be lying if I said no." Her voice was soft. "Which girl doesn't want to wear pretty clothes? To not be needed to do chores, to eat good food everyday?" He caught her tightening her grip on the cloth. "Which girl doesn't want to see her parents?"

Deciding to be tactful, the samurai kept quiet (even though he was thinking '_Matako_'). Now that he remembered it, that old hag did say something about her parents being in the palace. The Amanto returned to her spritely nature, quickly recovering from her brief bout of melancholy, but Takasugi wondered if it was just a mask. Nevertheless, she brought the needlework closer to her and smiled brightly. "Oh well! I'm happy with being here anyway! Happy to be who I am, and how I'm living. Things do get a little tough sometimes, but that'll just make us cherish the better times and not take things for granted. Plus, there are some very nice things here that the palace doesn't have."

"Oh?" An olive eye glinted in disbelieving amusement. "Such as?"

Suseri brought her red and blue orbs up to meet his, an impish smirk on her usually unassuming face.

"I'll show you."

* * *

><p>The inky dark night sky reflected Takasugi's mood as he navigated his way through the waist-high grasses, resisting the urge to cut them all off with his sword.<p>

She had told him to, in her exact words, "go play with Seoki and the kids for the rest of the day while I get ready_"_. The Kiheitai leader scoffed derisively in his mind. Play? Does he look like he _plays_ around? If Suseri had meant it as toying with the lives of other exploitable pawns like Ito Kamotarou, then yes. But apparently, she thought 'play' of its most literal meaning, even involving a handstitched ball made from old rags and a treebranch for a bat. Following that, the aggravatingly smiling Asato ushered him to the bunch of brats who had welcomed him with too much enthusiasm and screaming. Needless to say, the disinterested human sat out of their silly games, only to have their insufferably squeaky voices whining in his ears for him to join them.

So he sliced their ball in half, using the blatant excuse of not knowing that his sword was unsheathed when he made the degrading show of utitilizing it as a bat.

They did not question.

And now, the Joi extremist was supposed to meet her at some godforsaken lake in the middle of nowhere. To make matters worse, she had forgotten that he wasn't a local and thus he was forced to rely on vague directions and his wits to find that damned place.

Finally reaching his destination, Takasugi stepped out of the grasses and saw the girl biting nervously at her thumbnail. Upon hearing the rustle, she whipped around to jog up to him. "Ah! Earthling-_ssi_, it slipped my mind that you don't know the area! Was it very hard for you to get here? _Mianhe_, I mean, sorry!"

The Kiheitai leader shot her a dirty glare, ready to make her suffer for what she had put him through. However, the earnestly apologetic look in her mismatched eyes had unexplainably quelled his anger down abit, and hence he only spat out an irritated "It's fine."

Suseri knew that it wasn't, but since he said so...

Grabbing his wrist and ignoring his appalled expression at that gesture, she dragged him to an old, wooden boat floating on the shallow edge of the lake. They both got in and the girl rowed away eagerly while the man leant back, free of the work.

"Where are you taking me?" He inquired, voice lofty.

"Right..." She looked backwards and made the last three rows. "Here."

...Takasugi was not impressed. She made all that fuss to show him some muddy swamp? And they're not even docked yet. Frowning and nonplussed, he opened his mouth. "Oi, you-"

"Shh!" The Amanto pressed a finger to her lips, causing him to deepen his scowl. Nobody has ever shushed him before. Nobody dared to, not even strangers. The samurai watched as she picked up a stone from the bottom of the boat and flung it over to the weedy mass, and turned his head to decipher the purpose of her actions.

The scenery remained unchanged at first, then, millions of tiny lights rose up from the swamp grasses, floating over the boat and illuminating the place with their soft, yellow-tinted glow. Upon closer inspection, the purple-haired man noticed that each of them had small, translucent wings,

"Fireflies?" He queried, then gave a low chuckle. "This is like something out of a Ghibli film."

Suseri cocked her head cluelessly at his odd comment, but didn't pay much attention to it as she was too occupied with admiring the floating lights. "Beautiful, isn't it?"

"...Ah."

The luminescent orbs glittered like stars, and its beauty was further enhanced by the soft rays of the moonlight. The still surface of the lake only provided as a mirror to double the stunning visual, lighting up even the waters. It was undeniably a breathtaking sight.

Despite the reversal of roles, it could have been somewhat romantic, if the man wasn't the contemptuous criminal he is.

Takasugi directed his eye from the fireflies to the girl sitting opposite him, taking the time to study her face. She is actually really quite pretty, he noted. Unlike Nayu who was more fitted in the 'drop-dead gorgeous' category, Suseri gave people the impression of a sweet, pleasant naïve girl. Especially when her wide eyes are looking up in amazement like that. Completely gentle, she lacked the spunk which those girls in Edo whom Gintoki hangs around with possess, and Takasugi doubt that she would be capable of using force to protect herself. Heck, he doubt that she could even think of hurting an offender. He cruelly imagined the scenario of tossing her to a pack of Harusame pirates to have that innocence ripped apart. Yes, she would definitely give in without a struggle. But he also had an inkling that there was more to her than meets the proverbial eye; after all, still waters run deep. Perhaps like the one they're on now.

Sensing eyes (or an eye) on her, Suseri tore hers away from the dazzling lights to see the purple-haired man staring scrutinizingly. He wasn't even inconspicuous about it. Duo-coloured optics met olive, then he gave a smirk and returned to watching the firefly spectacle. Suddenly feeling very self-conscious, the Asato decided to dissipate the awkwardness by pulling out a long, rectangular box from her cloth-bag.

"Here, this is for you." She passed it to him, gauging his reaction anticipatingly.

"Ho?" Takasugi opened it and drew out a long, thin smoking pipe. A kiseru. "You made this?"

"Only half of it," the girl admitted, scratching her cheek sheepishly. "I tried to engrave some things to make it prettier, but really messed it up and got the tobacco farmer to finish the rest."

True enough, there was a rather deformed outline of a butterfly on the wooden tube. He noted condescendingly that it was made of inferior material, as expected from a one-day job, but he'll just have to deal with it until he could hold his original one.

The two watched as the last of the fireflies fluttered away, and Suseri rowed them to land where they would stroll back together to the main road, with her yapping away about how she happened to stumble across the gratifying sight while returning home from a late-night herb-gathering. Her spirits were higher than usual, mainly because she had finally managed to present her guest something that he would appreciate.

...Little did she know that it was because the lights resembled the embers of war and destruction to him.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: Okay, I know, I know. This chapter's not only short, it is also boring. But I had to slide in some filler to establish the base between Suseri and Takasugi! Don't worry though, things will start to get interesting in the next one, so please bear with it and don't give up on this yet! And some of the dialogue here feature some important stuffs, so take note! <strong>

**...and Takasugi wasn't checking her out (BTW I DIDN'T MAKE HIM OOC DID I?). He's just observing her. Really! And it would be good if you readers visualized the lake scene in your minds! :)**

**AND THANKS FOR THE REVIEWS, little101, Rosenkreuz Orden (OMG YOU WATCH TRINITY BLOOD?) and cy-grl! They made me feel better than how a cup of warm cocoa and cookies would. :') And I hope the top part answers your question, little101! I'm not having him give them his name for a reason. ;) (yeah, constant repitions of 'Earthling-ssi' are irritating, huh?)**

**I've actually already gotten the plot skeleton and ending all planned out. I just need to fill in some gaps when I type them out. And I may have to warn you guys that things will get _a lot heavier_ in the future, and heavy isn't exactly my usual style, so I'll be experimenting quite abit. Thus, I may not be able to captur- alright, I may fail at it. Hmm... why am I saying all these now? Let's leave it for next time! :)**

**That's all for now! As always, comments of any kind are greatly appreciated! Even flames, but only if they're constructive. ALRIGHT, SAYONARAAAA!**


	5. The Human Heart Will Fight

Twelve days since Takasugi Shinsuke was brought to the Asato village, the latter half of which he spent following Suseri. No, that was incorrect. The Kiheitai _leader_ doesn't follow. He was dragged around by the girl.

At first, he was allowed to just sit down by the sidelines and watch her carry out her chores, but as his injury was healing progressively (with help from her miraculous medicine and expertise), she coerced him into engaging in some trivial labour, because, -according to the medic herself-, he must prevent his mind and body from becoming idle. With that, the xenophobic criminal was reduced to drawing water from a well nearby for himself and his alien hosts, and had to approach their house for food or get some personally, which was pretty much impossible considering his lack of experience in the foreign land (everything used to be arranged and done so nicely for him...). Initially feeling incongruous, the Joi extremist grudgingly got used to the notion and his humble temporary life. Suseri also wanted him to join her in some field work, but the already peeved human had enough and sent her a glare colder than any winter she'd ever face. Hence, with a sigh, she let him off to do his own prefered recreational activity; sword practise.

The samurai swung his blade and in a splitting flash, the timber hit dirt. Frowning, he moved on to the next target. Dead, parched trees, he realised, make terrible dummies; they lacked the suppleness of the living ones, thus forever denying him satisfaction in the form of a clean cut. But what to do? He was prohibited from destroying the greens, lest he wants another lecture from a certain old hag. Though that was already exasperating in its own right, what _really_ ticked him off was...

"Earthling-_ssi_! That's too big!"

"Cut the branches!"

Takasugi hammered a withering glare over his right shoulder to the two aliens behind, one of them a young adult, the other still a child. However, both were too busy picking up fallen twigs and placing them into the huge basket slung over the boy's small back to notice. Snapping his head to the front, the silently raging man struck vehemently at the tree trunk as if to vent out some of his anger. As far as he knows, the bushido he was taught certainly _did not_ condone the use of a samurai's katana for, -another vicious slash-, _cutting firewood_.

"_Assa!_ We're done!" Seoki clapped his tiny palms together and plopped down on the ground, wiping the sweat off his forehead and panting. "Ah,_ noona_, I don't want to carry the basket anymore. It's so tiring!"

"I warned you that just now, didn't I? But nooo, somebody wanted to be a hero." Suseri chided teasingly, then stepped over to relieve the boy of his load. Looking up, her eyes scanned the area for a certain purple-haired human and saw that he had already advanced about fifteen fallen trees away. "_Ya_, Earthling-_ssi_! Take a rest! You're gonna strain that arm too much!"

Strain his arm. That was what she wanted him to do, wasn't it? To exercise his muscles so they won't grow _idle_. Souring his scowl, the Joi extremist dealt one last strike and flung his sword out of habit before sheathing it. Alright, so they didn't exactly ask him to cut firewood for them; he was just practising by himself one fine day when the girl suddenly came up with the great idea of using the fallen branches for the kilns and stoves so that "they won't go to waste". Brilliant for her, not him. But since it did not obstruct his training (and he was in a good mood), Takasugi decided to let it pass. Little did he know that it would later fester on his pride as a samurai.

Sauntering towards them, the Kiheitai leader slipped an arm under his robes and his annoyance heightened as he bore his eye into the dull violet fabric. Due to him owning only a yukata when he arrived, the japanese was forced to put on the planet's traditional clothing if he wanted to maintain his hygeine standards. Needless to say, the Joi was beyond miffed. Unfortunately, his host chose to comment on it the moment he reached them. "Earthling-_ssi_, wearing that _hanbok_ really makes you look like one of-"

A glare killed off her sentence. But not her smile, though. "...Come by my house later! I've got something for you."

Takasugi merely grunted irritatedly and sat down on a tree trunk he had ousted with his blade, and the other two followed suit. They enjoyed relative peace for a moment of time before a figure appeared in the far distance, running towards them and shouting, "_Unni_! _Unni_!"

Recognizing it as a teenaged girl from the village, Suseri stood up. "What is the matter, Hana?"

"_Unni_... Ryu-Ryu-..." The newcomer jogged the last few steps and bent over to pant heavily. After catching her breath, she looked up to face her senior, a high sense of urgency in her voice and miscoloured eyes.

"Ryuki's back!"

* * *

><p><strong><em>Chapter Four:<em>**

**The Human Heart Will Fight**

* * *

><p>Ryuki was indeed back, and he brought along all sorts of cuts and bruises with him.<p>

Suseri encased the barely-conscious Asato's arm in medicated bandages, expertly applying the required amount of force to lessen the bleeding. The concerned crowd gathered around the village square parted like the Red Sea when the tribe head hobbled up to attend to the matter, and another battered man sitting cross-legged on the ground relayed the story to him with agitated gestures.

Takasugi exhaled a long trail of smoke, lazily leaning against a tree with his right leg propped up. Something bad had happened, as evident from the worried gasps that escaped everyone who heard the bearded man's account, but he did not know what since he couldn't understand their alien language. Curious, he decided to ask the squatting boy beside him about it.

"It's the mountain bandits again." Seoki answered gravely, his short eyebrows bending up in distress as he picked out the middle-ager's tale among the crowd chatter. "_Ajeossi_ and Ryuki-_hyung _were returning from their hunting trip when the bandits caught them. They beat up _hyung_ more because _hyung_ wanted to protect _ajeossi_, and they needed _ajeossi _to carry their message for us."

"Message?" The foreigner echoed, breathing out grey fumes as he did. The little boy nodded and opened his mouth to explain, but a coarse female voice rumbled out instead. "They're saying that they're coming back."

Both heads turned to see an old Asato woman stepping up to them, a basin of herbal lotion in her arms. "_Halmeoni_!"

"Those mountain bandits travel around poor villages, maurauding and ransacking whereever they go. It's our turn again now." She stopped a few feet away from the two, holding the shadowed human in a serious stare. "Those bastards will always send some sort of warning so that we can prepare all the food and resources for their arrival, and it seems that this time, they made work of the two strongest men in our tribe."

"Strongest?" Turning to the mangled duo, Takasugi noted that he had not seen them in the village before. "No wonder you people get bullied by them."

"Tch." Highly annoyed by his insensitive remark, Halmeoni sneered in retaliation. "And I suppose you could do a better job?"

What she got back in reply was rather unforseen; an insane chuckle, then, his olive eye nailed itself darkly onto her.

"_Better than what you'll ever expect._"

The wisened grandmother could hear the dangerous edge in his voice, and decades of experience taught her when to back off if needed to. Besides, there were other pressing matters at hand, so the old woman decided to continue her way down into the square. However, not being able to resist her elderly pride, she let out an easy, playful scoff. "Let's see you do it, then."

"Hn." The Kiheitai leader's lips curled up into a smirk, and he leant back to look up at the sky through the leaves of the tree he was under while the forgotten boy rotated about the two adults blankly, confused by their exchange.

"Earthling...-_ssi_?"

* * *

><p>Tired of trying to see past the back profiles of nosy villagers, Takasugi decided to put his time into better use by resuming his katana practise. But even mowing down half a hectare of dead trees loses its fun after awhile (not that it was supposed to be<em> fun<em>, mind you), so the Kiheitai leader spent the rest of his day smoking his pipe in front of the magnificent view of the sunset. It would have been the closest thing to peaceful bliss for the terrorist, if a certain little alien boy did not choose to tag along with him.

"Usually, _noona_ would be the one who sits down here with me to watch the Sun go down," Seoki piped up, dangling his short legs over the edge of the cliff. "But Earthling-_ssi_, you make a good substitute for her too!"

"How nice to hear that," his unwilling companion drawled, sarcasm laced in every word. "Don't you need to go back home? Your parents will get worried, you know."

"They won't get worried. They can't."

Takasugi turned his head away from the orange horizon to face the boy, who had suddenly found interest in his swinging feet. "_Eomma_ and _appa_ are dead. They got killed by a bear in the mountains four years ago."

...Such a light tone for such a heavy statement.

"I'm not sad, Earthling-_ssi_! Don't look so serious!" The boy exclaimed, looking up frantically at the samurai and waving his two raised palms in defense. Then, he blinked his miscoloured eyes back to the sunset and sighed. "It happened when I was three, so I don't really have much of my parents to miss. Besides," his lips quirked up into a grateful smile, "there's _noona_ and everyone else to take care of me. They're all my _eomma'_s and _appa'_s! Ah, Earthling-_ssi_, you can be my _appa_ too!"

Giving a low, dark chuckle, the Joi returned to the view. "I'll pass."

A gentle breeze rustled both their dark-coloured hair, and a substantial silence filled the surprisingly easy atmosphere between them. Being so young, the child was still unfamiliar with the concept of death, and thus it did not affect his mind and heart overwhelmingly. _Probably a week or two of crying all his tears out, then back to his miserable life like nothing happened, _the battle-hardened veteran assumed, having seen one too many cases like this before. _Just like us. Always moving on so ignorantly like adversity never happened, like suffering never happened..._

_Like Shouyou-sensei's death never happened..._

"Earthling_-ssi, _do you like to grip onto your sword so much?"

Takasugi snapped out of his thoughts, then released the katana's scabbard from his clenched fingers and smirked. "Who is Ryuki?"

Surprised by the abrupt change of subject, Seoki blinked his brown and yellow eyes. "_Eo_? I thought you already know?"

He received a puff of smoke in his face. "What I know is his name, not who he is."

"I don't get you, Earthling-_ssi_," the boy mumbled, scratching his head. "But if you want to know what he does, then I can tell you. Ryuki-_hyung_ is the son of our village's hunter. He and _ajeossi_ go into the woods for about two weeks every month to bring back meat for all of us. That's why you didn't see them since the time you came here!"

"Ho? And I assume that you all will have no meat for the rest of this month now?"

"Yeah...those bandits..." The kid pouted, making fists. "I bet they used dirty tricks, that's why Ryuki-_hyung_ got beat up!"

The samurai sucked on his pipe lazily. "Is he really the strongest in the village?"

"Yup! And the most handsome too. Everybody says so!" Then, bringing a hand to his mouth, Seoki sniggered. "Nayu likes him. _Noona_ too!"

His mischievous grin was seemingly contagious, because Takasugi was unable to stop the smirk creeping up to his own lips. "Does she, now?"

"Uh-huh! But don't tell anyone, okay? _Noona_ will kill me if she finds out that you know."

"Still having a crush at the age of twenty." The purple-haired man scoffed amusedly. No wonder she ran away the moment news of his return reached her. "She really is a silly girl."

"Wait till you see how she acts whenever she sees him!" The little imp brought his two hands together to the side of his face, feigning a forlorn expression and sighing, "_Saranghaeyo, oppa_!"

Chuckling at his childish impersonation, Takasugi finished the last of the tobacco dregs and stood up, tapping his pipe to get rid of the ashes. "I'm going off now. Your _noona_ told me to meet her at her house. See you some time, brat."

"Bye, Earthling-_ssi_!" The boy stayed behind until the sky was fully dark before bounding off for his own hut in the village outskirts, somehow feeling lighter after their conversation.

* * *

><p>As the Kiheitai leader drew nearer to his alien hosts' abode, he noted that the straw-thatched house was a lot less friendly and welcoming than usual, reason being the shrill shoutings of korean coming from its inside, with the occasional slam of a cupboard door. Unable to understand, the human only observed, leaning against the doorframe while his presence went unnoticed.<p>

"_Halmeoni!_" followed by a string of words he did not comprehend. Suseri paced impatiently across the room, making sure to stamp on the ground as hard as she could with each step, scowling and glaring daggers at the old woman. And here Takasugi was, thinking that the usually gentle and pleasant girl was morally incapable of throwing tantrums like that (the one after the celebration didn't count), and to her beloved grandmother, even.

"Oh!" The elderly Asato stalked after the girl, screeching out her reply but stopped midway when she caught sight of their sudden guest. "_Eom-ma-ya... _Earthling-_ssi_!"

Upon hearing that, Suseri halted and swivelled around, nailing a hard look onto the purple-haired man who had stepped out of his so-called hiding place. "Earthling-_ssi_! Good that you came. Let me ask you: will you ever give in all the reapings of your hard work to a bunch of detestable low-lifes just because they demanded it, and then suffer while they enjoy at your expense? Don't you think that is incredibly foolish?"

So this is what it was all about. "Oi, oi. Don't drag me into your little family dispute."

"Exactly, you stupid girl!" Halmeoni marched up to their middle, glancing apologetically at their visitor for having him catch them in such a situation. "Earthling-_ssi,_ just ignore her_."_

Purposefully avoiding her eyes, the fuming Amanto girl stormed into a room and came back out with a cloth-bag swung over her shoulder. She stopped at Takasugi's side, and in a shaky voice, gritted out, "come on, Earthling-_ssi_. I do not wish to sleep here tonight."

Without even sparing her grandmother a glance, she stalked out into the dark while the purple-haired outsider nodded his farewell and left the gaping elderly woman alone in the house.

It was only until they were crossing over a short hill that the still raging female stopped to catch her breath. She flung her bag down onto the grass first, then herself, waiting for the samurai to catch up in his casual strolling. Too casual for her taste, apparently. "Why are you so slow today!"

Normally, the Kiheitai leader would not hesitate to draw out his blade if somebody used that kind of tone against him, but this time, ironically, he was far too entertained by it. Far too entertained by this side of the girl; a side that something in him wanted to see. "I went out of my way to stop by your house just because you told me to, and this is what I'm getting in return for that trouble? My, what did I ever do to you."

Shooting him an indignant look at his sarcastic tone, Suseri then huffed concedingly. "...Sorry. I shouldn't have snapped at you."

"Hmm? Your apology will be accepted," he drawled, sitting himself next to her. "If you tell me what delivered the third slap to the Buddha's face."

She waited for him to settle down completely before starting, wrapping her arms around her bent knees. "The farmers in my village toil in the fields, the women weave till their fingers bleed, and the hunters sin to bring back game from the forests, sometimes even risking their lives to do so. Everybody works so hard everyday to sustain our livelihoods, but with just a wave of their swords, the mountain bandits take away the fruits of our labour just like that, and nobody does anything to stop them."

The increasingly agitated girl paused to take in a calming breath before continuing. "Furthermore, they burn down our houses for their amusement, and even lust after the village girls. I've had enough of it!"

"But even if you feel that way," another smirk snaked up Takasugi's face while he fished around for his kiseru. Then, very bluntly, "there's nothing you can do."

"Hmph. You and _halmeoni_ are the same." The grass suffered her rage as she plucked viciously at it. "Only _oppa_ understands me."

"Oh-pa? You mean that Ryuki fellow."

"Hmm-hmm!" The Asato nodded fervently. "He also thinks that it is high time that we stand up against the bandits and fight for what is rightfully ours."

"Didn't he fail at that?" Ignoring her appalled gawking, the purple-haired human lighted up his pipe. "Oh, I get it. This is just a ruse to get revenge for your boyfriend, isn't it?"

"B-B-Boyfriend?" Suseri blinked rapidly, then tore away at the poor grass with even more force. "_Aniyo_! Ryuki isn't my b-b-boyfriend! He's just my _oppa_, I mean,_ oppa_ as in big brother, not the other _oppa_..."

The Joi exhaled a trail of smoke, not interested in her babbling. "You're not making any sense."

"I mean... Ah, _dwaesseo_!" The girl dusted her hands to get rid the torn leaves, then pretended to search in her bag until the pink tinge in her cheeks have gone away. "Anyway, I asked you to come by my house so that I can pass you your clothes. Here they are."

Takasugi felt something soft being dropped in between his lap, and looked down to see burgundy... _yukata_?

"I tried to follow the cut of your old clothes, and I'm pretty sure I got it right." Suseri said, patting the fabric proudly. "They look just like japanese robes, don't they?"

The samurai fingered the cloth, his lips quirking up. "Ho? You went through all that trouble. Why?"

There was a poignant pause before the Asato started digressively in a faint voice, "Earthling-_ssi, _you...don't really like us Amanto, don't you?"

Eyebrows twitching down at her abrupt question, the Joi extremist sucked on his kiseru. "Is it obvious? I believe that I've been pretty civil towards you all so far."

"Yes, you have been," she agreed sadly, disheartened that he did not even deny. "But I can tell from your actions and mannerisms; how you dislike our food, and way of life." Then, as an afterthought, "and clothing."

Mockingly, the Kiheitai leader sneered. "Maybe I'm just not accustomed to it. After all, not everybody can adapt to poverty."

"No." The Amanto shook her head, unaffected by his insult. In a voice full of certainty, she declared, "you like the taste, but not the cuisine. You don't mind the lifestyle, but cannot tolerate the culture. You approve of the clothing designs, but will never wear it in fear that it will cover your original identity. Am I right?"

_This girl..._ Takasugi narrowed his eye at her. Sensing the tension coming from him, Suseri decided to break it by giving a short, light laugh.

"But then again, maybe I'm just overthinking things. Maybe you're just really not used to Planet Asa, or just dislike us specifically. But eitherway," a hopeful smile, and she turned to him with utmost sincerity in her mismatched eyes. "Thanks for still treating us rather nicely."

A slow breeze blew in between them, then, the human chuckled, earning a mildly perplexed stare from the girl. "It is true that I dislike the Amanto, even hating some."

She waited expectantly for him to continue while the enigmatic man inhaled and exhaled another round of smoke. "But maybe you people are some of the few that I can tolerate."

He didn't need to look at her face to know about the pleasantly satisfied smile on it. Raising his pipe to his mouth once again, the purple-haired Joi also added as some sort of warning, "and don't go around assuming things all the time. I'm not that easy a person to read."

"Taking in a stranger whom we know nothing about," the Amanto leant backwards, a heavy load lifted off her chest. "What else can we do but assume?"

"Accomodate him." He shifted his eye down to his lap. "Keep these clothes away. Why did you take them out when you can do so once we're back in the hut?"

She did as she was told, grinning playfully. "So I can show the stranger how well I'm _accomodating_ him!"

"Heh."

The two enjoyed a brief moment of peaceful silence while they stared up at the starry night sky, before a certain matter resurfaced in both their minds.

The Kiheitai leader started first. "You say you want to protect your village, but how are you going to do that? Criminals won't hesitate to kill and destroy whoever who goes against them, you know." _I understand, for I am also one._

"Pfft. I don't need to worry about that." The girl scoffed, closing her eyes and waving a hand dismissively. "Those cowards won't kill us. _Oppa_'s injuries look serious, right? But they're actually not. He'll heal up in a couple of days. Those bandits are just putting on an act. I've been trying to tell that to _halmeoni _but she won't listen."

"Is that so?" Takasugi raised an eyebrow. "Then what's stopping you?"

"Just because they don't kill, it doesn't mean that they won't injure." Suseri lifted her eyelids and straightened up. "And accidents can happen. I need to make sure that there won't be any casualties while I figure a way to drive them out once and for all. Earthling-_ssi_, will you help me? You're an excellent swordsman!"

The earnestly serious expression on her face induced him to chuckle jeeringly. "Oi, oi. I'm only one samurai, not seven, you know."

"Hmph. I _knew_ you won't." The girl huffed and crossed her arms, then sighed in consent. "Ah, just as well, anyway. You can't afford to get injured again."

"Glad you know." The Joi drew another breath from his pipe. "So? How are you going to go about this? Don't tell me you're going to use force. They'll break you in an instant."

"Those bandits may be stronger than me," Suseri acknowledged, turning to the man beside her determinedly and rather self-assuredly, "but they're not smarter."

Takasugi could not stop his lips from curling up into a smirk while he regarded the girl with a dark glint in his eye.

_Things are_, he mused, _finally about to get interesting._

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: Phew, this chapter was tough, especially with Takasugi warming up to them. Did I manage to keep his character in check? I think I went a little off at some parts, but couldn't amend them any further... OTL And yeah, Suseri isn't all that simple after all! And I think that I should add in that the simple-but-makes-it-up-with-cleverness-heroine concept (sorry for fail description) and my writing style for this fic has both been inspired by a Naruto fanfiction, Till You Die by Mersea (I think some of you know, I saw it in the Favourites. No, I'm not cyber-stalking), which is an absolute work of art and definitely one of the best fanfics ever. Um, am I supposed to send the authoress a message about this?<strong>

**And btw, Idk if you guys know or not, there's a Japanese proverb that says "**Slap him thrice and even the Buddha will get mad**", meaning that even a mild-mannered person will lose his temper eventually. And **Seven Samurai** is an epic japanese film from the 1950's, about, well, seven samurai being hired to defend a village from bandits. So, I felt incredibly smug when I managed to insert that reference into the dialogue *gets shot* I hope that explains Takasugi's remarks for those who're confused! I initially didn't want to use the Buddha one cos it sounds odd, but it conveyed the meaning!**

**...Speaking of confusion, I think I owe everyone an explanation for the korean words and phrases used in this fic. Um, I'm not going to say them, because I hope it kind of adds in into the clueless foreigner feel that Takasugi's experiencing. This fic is after all, mostly told in his point of view. **

**To be honest, I don't really know korean myself. I've picked up the words from dramas, but had to google them to make sure that I used them in the right context. So to those readers who understand korean, PLEASE DO TELL ME IF I'M USING THEM INCORRECTLY! I don't want to be some n00b who doesn't know them but still wants to use them. That being said, me using korean in this fic is not, I repeat, NOT a serious case of Author Appeal. Really. I swear to God!**

**And holy crap, the reviews! **

**Good God,** Miss Catlover Chii**, you shouldn't have written all that because now my ego's inflated to the size of 9000 Sadaharus. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR LIKING THIS FIC! :D And yeah, I like to keep things slow in all my fics. XD the courtship is always the best part about romance, isn't it? *gets shot again* And oh, Matako _will_ meet Suseri...eventually. ^^**

little101**: Really glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for your continued support! :)**

Rosenkreuz Orden**: Yeah, we'll never know unless we try, right? But I really hope I won't disappoint you dear readers! And yep, I figured Takasugi will try to be as civil as he can (because he would be in deep shit with his injuries if he killed all of them LOL). Haha I read Trinity Blood for its amazingly beautiful artwork. And Tres Iques. ;)**

Fiyre**: Don't worry, I will continue writing! :) Now that I know that this fic isn't completely hated by everyone, haha. And I can't wait for YOUR story to unravel! ;)**

**About this update speed... I'm sorry to say that I won't be able to keep up with it anymore, because my school's starting soon. (GOD, WHY?) I'll try to squeeze out the next one before it, though!**

**Okay, this Author's Note is too long... See you readers next chapter! :D**

**P/S: And I'm really gonna need your opinions on this one. Especially the last scene. I feel that I'm trying too hard with it... Orz**


	6. The Human Heart Anticipates

The crescent moon was in full glow, casting an ethereal blanket of effulgence over empty fields and unlit homes. The lazy chirpings of crickets and occasional hoots from owls resonated through tranquil silence, joined in by the soft scrunching of grass when two figures jogged up to meet a third under a willow tree.

Secret rendesvous really are held best at night.

"Only the three of us, huh?" Suseri sighed, disappointment heavy in her voice despite having already expected it as she eyed the duo.

"The other youths are still very much afraid of the bandits," Ryuki replied, his brown hair falling when he dipped his head down. "The elders are out of the question."

"But you did not reveal anything about what we're planning to do, right?" The girl asked urgently. "We cannot implicate the others with knowledge about this. If something happens, then at least only we will be held responsible."

"Why don't we try to rope in more people?" Nayu pursed her full lips, a little unsettled at the thought of taking full blame. "How about Earthling-ssi? I heard that he's very good with the sword! He will definitely be of great help!"

A firm shake of head. "No. We cannot trouble him with our village affairs. And besides, he cannot get hurt again."

"But-"

"She's right. This is our own business." Ryuki agreed, and the startlingly beautiful maiden kept quiet immediately, pouting out her displeasure instead. "Anyway, Suseri, what is the plan? I trust that you've already come up with one?"

"I...have. But," the medic crossed her arms and took a seat on the large stone boulder behind, all the while looking pointedly at the raven-haired beauty opposite her. "You _may_ not like it."

Nayu frowned and cocked her head, while the brunette male beside her blinked cautiously. "What is it?"

The blonde closed her eyes and inhaled sharply, prepping herself for the load of whining and protesting that will be sure to come.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Chapter Five:<strong>_

**The Human Heart** **Anticipates**

* * *

><p>"T-They're here..."<p>

A scrawny man perched atop the gate lookout slowly widened his squinted eyes. Panic striking his mind and heart, he frantically descended the wooden tower, jumping off the last few steps to save time but ended up falling on his face instead. Not bothering to even dust himself, he scrambled to his feet, cupping hands to his mouth and hollering, "they're here! The bandits are here!"

Nearby villagers ceased their activites and froze, hearing the screaming man's words but not his warning. The gravity of their situation sunk in only after a middle-aged housewife lost hold of her basket of fruits, and in an instant, the once bustling plaza turned into a hysterical snake pit as everybody made haste to prepare for the bandits' arrival.

"They're not supposed to be here till late afternoon!"

"Eomma! Where are you?"

"Pick up those fruits, Yuna-ssi! We cannot afford to waste anymore food!"

"Oh no! I haven't sun the animal pelts yet!"

"Eomma!"

As the men were busy piling on crates and the women sorting out foodstuff, a deafening thud sounded from the village's main gate and startled eyes shot towards it. Petrified in their various stances, the villagers watched as the two wooden barricades were flung wide open, allowing a gang of heavily muscled men to strut into the square.

Their leader, -as distinguished by the thick fur cape draped over his wide shoulders-, stepped forward imposingly, glancing around his surroundings with a highly unsatisfied expression on his scarred face. All of a sudden, he banged his oversized _woldo_ on the ground, forcing every single villager in sight to drop down to the dirt and grovel.

"Why is everything not ready yet!" He bellowed out, inducing terrified flinches from the lesser people. A soft, thunking sound incited him to direct his glare to a hunched elderly man hobbling up, and he smirked when the geriatric also fell to his knees.

"Please forgive my people! We were not aware of your premature arrival, and thus were very unprepared," the tribe head beseeched in his most submissive voice. "If you would be so kind as to give us another hour, we will definitely arrange the grandest of feasts for you and your men!"

"Another hour? That would already be lunch-time," the thug sneered, then thrust a thumb backwards to his posse. "Me and my men have not eaten since yesterday. You think we can wait for another," another forceful bang, "HOUR?"

The tribe head pressed his face deeper into the dirty ground, soil muffling his lips. "Please, sir!"

"Hmm..."

"I beg of you! Please!"

"Alright, because yours truly is a benevolent man, and we _did_ come early." The oppressor turned around to stride back to his gang of twenty odd crooks, but not before spitting on the old man's balding head. "We'll be waiting at our stage as always, and we expect the usual gifts- No, this time, I want thrice of it. And it's about time you throw in a horse or two. We killed our old one because it wasn't listening to us." He shot a warning stare over his shoulder. "Do you understand?"

The village head kept silent and still, even though a whirlwind of troubled fear was stirring up within him; it would be _impossible_ to satisfy the hoodlum's request. There wasn't even a single horse in their possession, let alone half of what they're asking! But he'll have to worry about that later; right now, he has to see that those bandits leave as peacefully as possible.

But they were still dawdling around, itching to at least cause some mayhem before they exit the village gates. Then, a sudden cry came from the far left, drawing everybody's attention towards it. Including the bandits'.

A catalyst for disaster.

"Eomma!"

It came from a little girl no older than the age of three. Not knowing that it was still unsafe to move, she had tottered up the moment the gang of outlaws turned to leave, wanting to resume her search for her mother as soon as possible. She continued screaming despite the many daunting looks aimed at her way, and promptly fell backwards when she collided into a wall of muscle.

"Did somebody lose her mommy?"

The child brushed away blinding tears, then looked up to see a yellowed grin right in her face. An evil, yellowed grin. Her miscoloured eyes held in them the reflection of a raised blade, and then-

A faint cloud of dust and a heart-wrenching scream from somewhere behind the plaza.

The head bandit narrowed his eyes in outrage, arm still poised for striking while the kneeling female in front of him lowered her pale-blonde head.

"Please sir, forgive her impertinence, she is but a child. If you wish to punish somebody, do so on me. This little one cannot be harmed for she is being raised to be a King's concubine."

The same thoughts crossed through the fear-strickened minds of every villager as they witnessed the scene before them, increasingly horrified and completely flabbergasted. _What in the world is Suseri doing? What is she saying? Since when was that little girl a-_

"King's concubine...?" Finally, the weapon was drawn back. "You have one here?"

"...Yes, sir. Every village has to send one."

_Why is she telling him that? He and his men_ _must not know about Nayu!_

"I know that! What I meant is..." The salacious leer on the thug's face finished his sentence for him, and the terrified girl flung herself at his feet.

"Sir! Please, you know that you cannot! N-Nayu will be ruined, then our village will be ruined!" She made a desperate grab for his robes. "T-Take me, take me instead!"

With a ruthless sneer, the villain bent down to roughly hold the young woman's face with one hand. "But the King doesn't know who's the prettiest in this village, does he? You don't look that bad yourself; you can substitute for her."

She was thrown backwards with more force than needed and he straightened his back, turning heel and making a beckoning gesture with his arm. "Bring me this Nayu girl. Men, we're going to have fun tonight!"

Very much aware of the questioning, horrified expressions shot her way, Suseri steeled herself to ignore them and rubbed her sore cheeks as she thought about a meeting she had two days ago.

"_You want me to what?"_

"_Exactly as I said." _

_Nayu gawked increduously at the village medic, her gobsmacked expression clashing with her pretty features. In a swish of red robes, she swivelled to the brunette sitting on her left and pointed a manicured finger to the other female. "Oppa, did you hear what she just told me to do?" _

"_Yes, I did." Ryuki nodded gravely, then turned to the pacing girl. "Suseri, are you really sure about this? We will be taking a very high risk here. The number one criteria for a King's concubine is for her to be completely pure. If those bastards-"_

"_I know, I know." Sighing, the pale-blonde Asato slowly faced her two companions. "But there isn't anything else we can do to distract them. And don't forget, there're only the three of us in this. We have to exploit every single opportunity and resource we have."_

"_But, but, but!" The Asato beauty pouted, her large mismatched eyes watering. "What if those scumbags take advantage of me before oppa comes?" She squeezed her eyes shut in disgust at the thought and balled her fists. "Noooo! I don't want it to end like that!"_

"_It won't." Determined red and blue orbs met her fearful brown and green. "I'll run through the plan again. Nayu, I'll find a way for them to know about you when they come. With the thought of being able to have the King's concubine, they won't settle for less, and thus in effect, will leave all the other girls alone. Also, knowing their hateful characters, lust will override all their other evil tendencies-"_

"_So they'll be too occupied to think about harming anything or anyone else." Ryuki finished, getting up to his two feet. "But how sure about that are you?"_

_The medic nailed a hard look into his eyes._

"_Very sure."_

True enough, Suseri saw with extreme relief that the bandits had taken her bait and indeed left in high spirits without so much as kicking a stone out of their path. Only when they were completely out of sight did the villagers dare to move; and many rushed to the three people on the ground up in front.

"Mina! Why did you leave my side just now!"

"Are you alright, Hamada-nari? That scumbag...how dare he spit on you!"

"Suseri, you stupid girl!" A grizzled woman fell to her knees next to her granddaughter, checking the girl's lithe form for any sign of injuries. "He didn't hurt you, did he?"

"No, halmeoni, I'm fine." With a pang of guilt in her heart, Suseri looked up at the worried eyes of the old woman, suddenly occuring to her that she was the one who delivered the scream from before. Getting up and dusting herself, the young woman scanned her surroundings, taking in the distressed atmosphere and crying faces of her clansmen, the sights fuelling her resolve to protect them.

* * *

><p>With his cheek on his knuckles and a half-lidded eye, Takasugi looked a picture of complete boredom. The nefarious gang of bandits he had heard so much about from everyone turned out to be just a gang of baboons. Okay, he'll give them credit: baboons who knew how to swing a blade, but that is all. He watched from the window of his hut as they trotted up a highland trail, and noted with deep condescension that they emitted not even an ounce of killing intent, only idiotic guffawing. Suseri was right after all; their huge muscles and weapons are just for show. A chuckle escaped his lips as he realized that the girl had a knack for reading people, and he wondered to what extent she was able to.<p>

A soft creak incited the samurai to direct his attention to the door on his far right, and he lazily eyed the boy who had crept through it without moving out of his posture. Scurrying over to the purple-haired man, Seoki carefully laid a wooden tray on the floor as though it was made out of glass, wanting to make as little noise as possible. Then, he cupped a hand on the side of his mouth and whispered, "that's your dinner, Earthling-_ssi_. We can't serve it to you later because we all have to attend to the bandits. Sorry that it will get cold!"

Takasugi's eyebrow twitched down slightly as he regarded the chipped plate and bowl, lifting a hand to pick up the lids. Only a bowl of plain rice and a measly piece of fish? There wasn't even soup, and the portions were smaller! What, so are those mindless baffoons more important than him now? He released the ceramic cover from his fingers, letting it fall back on the bowl with a discontented, noisy _chink_.

The Asato jumped up as though Takasugi had smashed the dishware, then hastedly pressed a finger to his lips. "Shh! Earthling-_ssi_, don't make any sound! The bandits cannot find out that you're in the village!"

"I," the human gritted out, his glare darkening, "know that."

Suseri had made it very clear that Takasugi's presence was to under no circumstances, be revealed to the bandits. Apparently, not all Asato were as accepting to other races as her village, and there were stories of unfortunate foreigners being put through all sorts of cruel ordeals by xenophobic Asato, especially by the government-hating outlaws. Of course, the Kiheitai leader scoffed to that, and challengingly wondered out loud if they could even lay a finger on him, but the blonde girl was having none of it and had once again somehow coerced him into agreeing to his short confinement.

The Joi had found it hard to quietly detain himself within the four walls, since he was hoping, -practically itching-, to lay his blade on raw flesh. But now that he has seen how much of a competition the bandits were, he thought that he would get more of a kick from counting the number of empty cobwebs hanging off the hut's ceiling than clashing swords with them.

After hushing and almost pleading with the human to keep aboslutely silent, Seoki left the hut the same way he came in, but not before shooting an assertive look over his small shoulder. Olive returned to green, and Takasugi exhaled nonchantly as he watched another two burly figures trudge up the hill while the door creaked shut.

No_...wait._

The Kiheitai leader sat up straighter, his curiosity starting to heighten. _One of them..._

It was faint, almost unnoticeable, but the samurai made no mistake about that malicious aura; killing intent.

The lankier one with greasy hair next to the fur-caped neanderthal. Probably not as pale as the others he had seen and interacted with, and he didn't seem to feel the need to hide from the sun, _but..._

Takasugi's eye widened slowly, whether in mild shock or excitement, he didn't care to know. Because right in front of him now, in this dingy place...

_...Yato blood...?_

* * *

><p>"<em>Twenty men with the strength of elephants. Obviously, we'll have to take out their numbers first," Suseri tapped a finger to her chin, eyes staring up to the bright orb in the sky. "Without them finding out."<em>

_Nayu let out an unladylike snort. "And how are we going to do that? It's not like they're blind enough not to notice their buddies go missing one by one!"_

"_Then let them notice. As long as they don't suspect anything."_

"_Yeah, how?"_

_The medic stilled her finger and rested it on her jaw. "What do the lackey bandits always do first when they come, next to plundering our village?"_

"_Check our offerings." Ryuki answered, spite blatant in his words. _

_She turned around. "There's our chance."_

Suseri bit her lip and suppressed the urge to scream out as she navigated her way through the rocky trail. From the corner of her eye, she could see those pig-headed brutes hacking away unnecessarily at stray bushes, and it ached her heart somewhat as the fallen leaves and stems littered the path. Plants have lives too, after all.

Her tolerance however, reached its low when one of them picked up a stone to fling it at a bird's nest, knocking it off the tree where it fell into a heap of scattered twigs and broken eggs onto the ground below. The silently fuming girl then stopped in her tracks, ready to fix a glare onto the offender, when a hand placed itself onto her shoulder. She turned to see a brunette giving her a warning look.

Ryuki leant in to whisper. "Just bear with it. Your plan is going well so far."

After the villagers had presented the food to the bandits, their leader sent five of them to go down to the village to check on their 'gifts', but three more wanted to tag along, so all was in Suseri's favour as it would mean getting rid of nearly half of them. Following the plan, she and Ryuki volunteered to lead them to the place where the goods are kept; the bait for the trap.

"Is some'in da matter?" One of the crooks stepped out, swinging his mace threateningly.

"...Nothing." Suseri forced out a smile, and the group resumed their journey through the forest.

They reached a clearing before a river, where three large, caged carts stood, each containing crates of packed goods. Ryuki padded over to rest his hand on one of them, facing the gang of hoodlums. "We've added wooden beams to the usual carts, so that none of the crates will fall out when you all continue on your way to the next village on the other side. We've heard that the road is quite rough."

"Heh. Not bad service." A bandit circled the carts, then snapped his fingers to his companions. "Eh, you four go check the other two. Me and Goto will do this one." He then hoisted himself up and walked between the crates while the others did the same.

None of them noticed the thin, nylon cord connecting all the doors of the carts nor the girl who was locating its end among the grasses.

"Oi! The boxes are empt-"

With a hard yank of the string, Suseri shut the bandits in the cages while Ryuki rushed to lock them. The other two crooks who were keeping watch at the mouth of the clearing thundered over, but it was too late; their companions were banging helplessly against the bars, yelling all sorts of obsceneties to be let out.

"You tricked us!" The burlier of the two bellowed furiously, and they charged towards the two villagers with raised sabres. Ryuki tackled one of them, bringing him and himself down to the ground, the impact causing the bandit to lose hold of his weapon. Meanwhile, Suseri dealt with her own opponent by leading him into a game of cat-and-mouse, sprinting all over the place to evade him. Knowing that she could not possibly keep this up, the cogs in her mind worked when she spotted the discarded sabre lying a few feet away from the two grappling males.

_Oppa, wait for awhile,_ the girl thought, picking up the heavy blade with both hands, _I'll help you soon!_

"Hah! You honestly think that you'll be able to take me down?" Her bandit sauntered up, tapping his own sabre on his shoulder. "Girly, you're so cute."

Suseri willed her arms to stop trembling, but they would not listen. She took a few steps back cautiously, then made for a dash once again.

She ran for a good few minutes again before falling onto the gravelly riverbank, and she whipped her head to see the hoodlum advancing on her, the dirtiest of smirks on his ruggedly ugly face.

"Once I'm done with you..."

The Asato girl pushed herself backwards to put more distance between them, but his strides were huge. Then, finally finding the right angle, she twisted the sabre in her hands, reflecting the afternoon sun's glaring rays into the bandit's eyes with its flat side, blinding him. The sharp pain caused his hand to shoot to his face instinctively, and Suseri used that opportunity to push the unguarded hoodlum into the coursing river, where the sudden impact wore his defence down against its strong current.

Wasting no time, she clambered to where the other two were, stopping to see them wrestle on the dusty ground. The blonde girl flung herself onto the back of the bigger man, giving Ryuki the chance to escape from under him and gain the upperhand. Suseri struggled to restrict the bandit's movements while the brunette rained blows onto his face. After five long minutes, the hoodlum was finally knocked unconscious and his bruised body fell down with a loud thud.

The remaining duo keeled over with heavy panting, minds too numb and blank by what had transpired. Screamings from the carts brought them back to earth, where they looked over their shoulders just in time to see a crate fall on one of the bandits due to their thrashing about.

Suseri broke into a smile, her speech broken by her huffing. "T-They really are.. as stupid as...animals. Entering the cage even after...seeing it."

"They really lowered their guard by believing we aren't capable of resistance, as you said." Having already caught his breath, Ryuki stood up and offered a hand to the girl. "Come, we must hurry back to the stage! They may ask for Nayu anytime now!"

Despite the situation, Suseri couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy when she heard the urgency and concern in his voice, but she quickly brushed it away and was pulled to her feet. The pair then made haste to return to where they came from.

_Still twelve more to go... _The blonde medic thought as she flitted through the trees. However, she did not feel as much worry as she did before, perhaps due to the success of her plan so far.

And after all, they're all just a bunch of mindless baffoons, right?

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes: Oh My God... I'm so sorry for the long update. I've just started at a new school, so settling to the new school culture and system got me pretty much worn out everyday, but yeah I know, it's no excuse. Sorry again!<strong>

**And I hope that this chapter wasn't too much of a letdown! Like the previous chapter, I'll need all the feedback you all can give for this one. Cos tbh, I thought that Suseri's plan was a little... lame. Do you all get this chapter so far, though? I have to admit that this arc is really tough to come up with, but trust me, I swear to put in all my effort write it as well as I can. Because as I said before, I have pretty big ideas for this in the future, so this is kind of a 'warm-up' for what will happen next time. Okay, I don't know if I'm making any sense here...**

**And a woldo is a Korean spear thingy. Idk how to describe it OTL. And just to mention, when the Asato are speaking amongst themselves, they use korean. Only in the presence of Takasugi will they use japanese.**

**AND OMG THE REVIEWS! I check my email regularly, and was pleasantly surprised to see all the notifications popping up, and they really pumped me up to finish this chapter. :') I'm sorry though, I don't have the time (or energy) to reply to the reviews now (and as you all can read from this author's note, I'm not really thinking coherently... I just woke up to review this chapter which I've finished the night before to make sure that it is fit to be published... 3.3) But you all must know that I appreciate every single one of them :) and don't worry, DatAznKid, I will _never_ give up on this fic. I apologise in advance that you all may have to bear with long updates, but rest assured that I will not leave this hanging halfway.**

**Okay that's all! I have to go drink some coffee right now. The pile of homework that I have to complete by today... Gawd. SEE YOU LOVELIES NEXT TIME!**


	7. The Human Heart Has Just Started Pumping

"_Following that, we'll return to the stage and lie to the remaining lackeys that their buddies are having a good time down in the village. Hmph, being the sex-crazed beasts they are, they'll want to join in the fun too, and will thus blindly rush down the path and into the traps that Ryuki would have had laid out." Suseri plucked at a plant she was fiddling with, watching the tattered leaves fall onto the ground. "Animal traps are meant for animals, after all."_

"_Your plan does seem logical... But Suseri," worry was etched in the brunette male's frown, "I think that you're underestimating them too much."_

"_I think so too, oppa!" Nayu nodded fervently. "I mean, surely they can't be-"_

"_It is the bandits who are underestimating us." The medic declared, utmost certainty in her voice. "They believe that we are spineless pushovers who will not dare to even utter a single word against them. Haven't you noticed that they completely drop their guards when being with us? Heck, I even saw their leader sleep with his full neck exposed when Farmer Jun was standing right next to him with a sickle!_

_I am simply making use of that." She dropped the mangled weed and dusted her hands. Then with a sharp intake of air, the blonde girl continued her scheme. "So anyway, once we're sure that the lackeys are taken care of, I'll slip a drug into the lead-"_

"_Then why don't you just drug them all in the first place?" The village belle facing her threw up her arms, shooting Suseri a look that clearly questioned her intelligence._

_It was countered with an infuriatingly calm one. "How do you think they would react if they see one of them passing out after taking a sip of our drink?" _

_Sense grudgingly settled onto Nayu's expression._

"_Exactly. Oh, but my drug won't knock the leader out." Suseri chirped almost casually. "Rather, it will cause an adverse reaction in his body with lots of pain and no cure. But of course, I and only I will have the concoction that will keep that 'poison' at bay. And in exchange for that; protection over our village."_

_The other two took a few moments to process the plan, then-_

"_Are you really going to poison him...?" Ryuki asked, extremely hesistant about the idea. Even if those hooligans did deserve it, how could she even think of doing such a cruel thing...?_

_Noticing the concern on his face, Suseri immediately sought to clear her name. "Of course not, oppa! I don't even know how to brew up such a thing! It will just be a small dose of the Doko herb. Nothing fatal, but enough to cause temporary pain just so that he'll believe he's poisoned."_

_Confidently, she crossed her arms. "He can't possibly know any better, anyway."_

* * *

><p><em><strong>Chapter Six:<strong>_

**The Human Heart Has Just Started Pumping**

* * *

><p>Brown and yellow heads moved through the shrubs, scouring for any visible, give-away signs of the traps laden out in the soil. Finding none, Ryuki and Suseri straightened their backs, looking up at the darkening stretch of sky through the shadowed canopies.<p>

"Well, that should provide some cover too." The blonde medic commented, then directed her gaze to the male beside her. "Oppa, we should go now."

A nod in reply, and they sprinted up the logged path, speeding up and almost crashing across the small neck of clearing with the female screaming dramatically as her entrance.

"Yuna-ssi! Your eldest daughter... The bandits are..." Suseri fell next to the middle-aged woman, clutching at her elbows. "I-I'm sorry, I-I tried to stop them...!"

She barely had time to register the look of devastation washing over the woman's face as one of the bandits strutted over to them. "Goto and the others having fun with them young girlies?"

The young woman nodded slowly, his beady eyes boring into her wide ones. The scoundrel's rough mug started to scrunch up, and Suseri waited anticipatingly for him to start-

_Guffawing.._? No, why was he...!

"Ah, those stupid idiots! If they controlled themselves a little better then they could be having her King's Concubine by now!" He sauntered back to his previous ground, head thrown back in laughter which struck cold, icy pikes into the blonde girl's heart.

Noticing her frightened confusion, Yuna informed in between heavy sobs: "T-They just brought Nayu to the leader ten minutes ago. H-He said he couldn't wait and forced Hamada-nari to bring h-her out. Only God knows w-what he's d-doing to poor Nayu now!"

Reactions to that were instantaneous; it needed to be. Suseri barely felt the crick in her neck after whipping her head around to face Ryuki, whom having heard the relay, had launched himself onto the nearest bandit in a mad fit.

Like a stone flung into a flock of birds, the villagers rose up in a startled frenzy while the other bandits struggled to contain them. The few who were not hollering and waving their swords over the chaos thundered across to the side to help restrain a thrashing brunette male.

"SUSERI!" Ryuki screamed as he yanked his arm out of a vice-like grasp, his normally calm disposition contorted by raging desperation. "FIND NAYU NOW! YOU MUST SAVE HER!" A hard punch to his right. "GO, NOW!"

The blonde medic gave a wordless nod, and her eyes ricocheted around the area to find an opening in which can escape through. _There_, that small gap between the bushes! She wasted no time in darting through it, and had managed to leave undetected by the harrowed bandits.

Her exit was not completely unnoticed, however. Seoki bit down hard at his lip to contain a scream. No matter how smart she is, Suseri will no doubt be decimated by those brutal ruffians if she confronts them alone! His eyes turned towards Ryuki, who was already holding off more than he could, then towards the other village men around himself, all too petrified and subdued by the looming guards standing above them. _Then that only leaves with..._

"OI! Somebody catch that little brat!" All attention was directed to a flash of brown disappearing through the entrance of the clearing, eliciting yells of fury from the bandits and horrified gasps from the villagers. Seoki bolted down the slope as fast as feet could carry him, adrenaline and fear coursing through every inch of his body and tears stinging at his eyes. He was afraid, very much afraid of the consequences if he was to get caught, but even more so of that if Suseri was the one to be. The orphan briefly looked over his shouder to see two burly men thundering after him, and then-

_SNAP!_

-everything was suddenly turned upside-down. Sweat was pouring up Seoki's face rather than down as the boy yanked desperately at his roped leg. He had fallen into one of the traps that Suseri and Ryuki had laid out! His two pursuers slowed down, approaching the dangling child and grinning menacingly.

The more bearded one stepped up and cracked his gnarled knuckles. "Hah! That's wh- _ARRGHHH_!" His sentence was abruptly cut short when a spiked, metal device clamped torturously onto his leg, trapping it. At that moment, Seoki had managed to free his and swung himself to deliver a kick to the other crook while he was distracted by his companion's plight. The boy's lithe form fell to the dirt with a soft thud, and he wasted no time in scrambling up and away to a certain samurai's hut.

The free bandit clutched at his bleeding eye. Though the brat's assault was probably as weak as a slap on the back, his damned toe was shoved into his socket. Vowing to commit all sorts of murder on the boy, he barrelled up the path to call for more men to aid his hunt.

* * *

><p>Takasugi actually had no intention to eat the substitence he was provided; he had better standards than that. However, as time dragged on and night drew near, he decided that the annoying pang in his stomach was not going to do any good for his already restless and worsening temper. So here he was, knelt down on the ground and supporting the cold ceramic with a hand, his metal chopsticks poised to pick at stale rice.<p>

"EARTHLING-_SSI_!"

Normally, the Joi extremist would have ignored it and continue with his meal, but this time, the cry was cracked with desperation of the most urgent level. He watched as a wary and wearied figure crash through the door, his olive eye drawn to the fresh cuts and scrapes that bloodied the adolescent's legs and feet. "Earthling-_ssi_, please hel-"

"_Stupid boy! We've got you surrounded now!_" A voice presumably as rough as its speaker barked in Korean from outside, and soon, five bronzed, growling ruffians entered the hut, headed by a bandanna-ed hulk with a bleeding eye. "_I'll make sure that I'll kill you in front of your mother, then after that I will kill her myself too! Where ar-_ Ahh..."

It was as if they only noticed the purple-haired man after they caught sight of the quivering boy crawling behind him. The cockiest of smirks snaking up their scarred mugs, the thugs patted their weapons against the tough hide of their palms and inched closer to the two, looking down on them condescendingly. "_What is this? I haven't seen you before. Everybody is supposed to be at the stage as a sign of respect to us!_" The wooden floor splintered as a heavy mace was smashed onto it. "_You know that!_"

"Earthling-_ssi_..." Seoki whimpered, tugging frantically at the samurai's robes. The boy knew that he could not understand what was being said, but surely the human held enough sense to know what is going on! So how can he still continue eating his rice so calmly and unaffectedly? "Earthling-_ssi_...! Please...!"

"_Hah, what a cute little boy, so scared that he's not even speaking proeprly_." The leading crook crackled. "_Do you really think that such a skinny, injured man can protect you from us? I bet he can't even protect himself!_"

"_Oi, there's a sword here!_" One of the bandits moved towards the katana that was leaning against the window, snickering mockingly. An olive eye slit open. "_Oooh so this one learns swordplay, eh? How scary!_"

He picked up the sheathed blade for closer examination. "_Wait a minute, this doesn't look like-_"

_THUNK!_

The others nearly missed the flying glint of metal.

An omnious silence hushed the bandit's unfinished sentence. Heads and eyes slowly, almost fearfully, turned towards the window, only to be greeted with a ghastly sight; a convulsing, rasping body nailed to the wooden framework at the throat.

Nailed by a pair of metal chopsticks.

"Little kids shouldn't see this." Seoki barely had time to register the gore before he was knocked unconscious. A soft shuffling of clothes tore the attention of the crooks away from the horrifying plight of their companion to an even more horrifying vision. Their wide eyes watched as the once indifferent, unassuming purple-haired man drew up to his full height while their whirling minds registered the ascension of a snarling, bloodthirsty demon. His olive eye surveyed the group, and after a brief, tensed moment, the side of his lips quirked up and he spoke in badly-accented tongue.

"_Easy_."

The battle cries of the brawny gang soon turned into agonized, helpless screams as Takasugi went on a small spree. They could only swing and thrash their weapons blindly in futile attempts to injure him while the Kiheitai leader delivered skillful, devastating blows onto them with his hands. Whatever power their bulky muscles held, the lean human possessed ten times more. Takasugi separated joints, disintegrated bones, lacerated tendons and induced a lot, a lot of bleeding from them.

The only bandit who avoided his wrath was the one nailed to the frame, his thrashing stilled and raucous breath suppressed. The chopsticks had missed his windpipe and impaled only his vocal chords, hence leaving him alive, or as alive as he could be. Though disorientated, he had seen the carnage unfold and decided that the best option for himself now is to be as unnoticeble as possible and wait for that _monster_ to leave.

He watched as one of his companions lumber on distortedly bent knees before falling to the crimson-soaked flooring of the hut, then strained his eyes to the two remaining figures. The purple-clad back of the assailant did not hide the despair prevailant on his friend's face as he looked on pathetically in the face of Death. Takasugi held the bandit up in a vice-like grip by the throat with one hand and placing his other on his victim's paling face. Effortlessly, he crushed and twisted the neck, letting the body drop motionlessly onto the ground.

The sight of the gruesomely mutilated corpses however, did not unnerve the remaining bandit as much as the maniacal grin that was on the one-eyed man's face did. Deliberately, the beast turned around and made his way towards the window. With every step, the trapped Asato writhed and rasped harder and louder, his screams caught in the gurgling of blood in his throat.

Takasugi stopped directly in front, then wiped his crimson-stained hands on his robes before bending down to pick up and unsheathe his sword, running his eye on it as though examining it for any signs of damage.

"This is a katana." He informed almost casually, lightly flicking the metal with his fingernails. "And you," the horrified bandit felt a whole new wave of terror when an olive eye shot its glare towards him.

The blade hovered above. "You will never touch it again."

A perturbing scream resounded into the night, dying off along with the one who delivered it.

* * *

><p>Suseri felt like she had been running for an hour straight, but the shade of the sky told her that it was only a little past evening; only ten minutes. Dropping down onto a log and breathing like she had asthma, the blonde girl clamped her eyes shut to dissipate the white flashes in her vision and steady her muddled mind. She had not wanted to rest as time was precious, but her physical abilities could only go so far. Plus, she had to think; how on Asa was she going to find Nayu and the bandit leader when she was given no clue? In addition, how was she going to save her? Deciding to address the former first, Suseri got up and looked around her surroundings.<p>

_Since he wanted his way with her... _The medic thought hard. He needed a place with cover and soft ground... The instant it appeared in her mind, the Asato was already sprinting off to the clearing that should be nearby. Seeing the familiar shrubs up front, the girl slowed and quietened her footsteps, quickly crouching behind one when she heard the ruffling of grass. Through the leaves, she could see...

A large rat scouring the ground for any insects or edible material. The rodent then dashed away along with Suseri's hopes and morale, and the blonde girl slumped her shoulders in defeat. She was never going to find her. If only she had listened to Halmeoni and stayed docile with the others, Nayu would still be safe and well. How could she have let this happened? Even after what she had promised...

"_There!" The wheels of the cart came to a stop and the Asato medic dusted her hands. "Now we await their arrival."_

_She turned around, expecting to see excitement but only received anxiety on her companions' faces. Their apprehension took the edge off her smile, but nonetheless she still stepped up to them, hands behind her back and smiling assuredly. "Come on, guys! Think about it. Sooner or later our village will be in peace, and we can fully enjoy the fruits of our labour without the fear of oppression!"_

"_Yes, that would be wonderful," Ryuki exhaled, then brought stern eyes to meet hers, "but have you considered the consequences of your plan backfiring? What if you've severely underestimated them? There are recent rumours of them recruiting a half-Yato. How are we going to deal with that?"_

"_Rumours will be rumours." The village medic flicked her wrist dismissively, lips quirking up as though to suppress a laugh. "Why would a half-Yato join them? Heck, is there even such a thing as a half-Yato? You're worrying too much, oppa." _

_Satisfied when he made no retort, Suseri turned to check on the other female and upon seeing her expression, sighed and knelt down in front of the village beauty. "Nayu..."_

_Brown and green met red and blue before glistening with fearful tears. "Suseri! I'm sorry, but I'm just so afraid! I can't help but think about your plan becoming a flop, and then the bandits will... They will-"_

"_They won't do anything to you," the blonde female smiled so assuredly that Nayu ceased sobbing._

"_I won't let them."_

With a sudden surge of adrenaline, Suseri tightened her fist, crushing the dead leaves and grass in her sweating palms. Her shaking form rose and tears rolled down her cheeks. She made a promise. And she was going to keep it, even if she has to search the entire forest for her. Leaping away, she started in the direction of the next clearing when a bloodcurdling scream echoed from the north. An undoubtedly feminine scream.

Nayu.

As fast as a whipcrack the blonde was already flitting through the trees in its direction, swatting away branches and kicking over stones with abandon. It did not matter if her heart was already pounding hard enough to hurt, nor if the various scratches on her legs and arms were bleeding. The only thing that did was getting to wherever Nayu is, but how when she couldn't tell where the scream came from specifically...?

She nearly missed it in a flash; the shrubs on her right, illuminated by a beam of moonlight. The medic stepped towards them, all the while staring at their torn leaves, which looked as though they were grabbed by someone...

Quickening her pace with each step and feeling the weight of relief enveloping her heart, Suseri noted with growing conviction that the soil had been dragged upon by somebody, and there were evidence of a struggle on the mangled bushes. Her walk accelerated into a sprint, and she furiously chased the trail left behind by the captured village beauty until she could hear movements behind a thick hedge. The Asato girl then controlled her footsteps so that they became inaudible.

"Stop struggling, you little wretch! Give it up, nobody is coming to save yo- OUCH!"

"Somebody help me! Please!" The anguish in that familiar cry wrought hard and stabbed pikes into Suseri's heart.

"Let me take care of her."

"NO! You idiot! Hit her anywhere but her face! At least once we're done we can sell her to a brothel."

That line drew the final straw. The blonde medic glanced wildly around her surroundings; the utmost priority right now is to get Nayu out of there. Spotting a thicket of red berries, she grabbed a few of the small spheres of crimson and a crudely jagged-edged rock before stealthily closing in for the rescue.

She will not let them hurt her.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: No words can describe how apologetic I am for this long update. I've been incredibly busy for the past months X_X. So I hope that some Takasugi ass-kicking will make up for it (how was this chapter btw? I've been away from writing for so long, I think my quality has dropped...)! And yeah I'm so sorry for all the cliched n00b-bad-guy lines hehehe. <strong>

**Also, no words/characters/any form of communication can convey the gratitude I have for you reviewers. :') Sorry, _little101_ and _Fiyre_, the Yato's not Kamui hehe (why would he (or Kagura for that matter) even be there anyway LOL). But I do have plans of including Kamui in this. I mean, he's KAMUI! 3 But that will most probably happen in the distant future... =w=**

**As usual, I can't thank you guys enough for the reviews and alerts and favourites (LEAVE ME MORE MUAHAHA). So, until next time (which may take a long time too due to my busy schedule... But as I've said before, rest assured that I will NOT abandon this halfway)! ^3~**


	8. The Human Heart Has Much To Explore

Nayu desperately pushed herself off the damp ground only to be violently flung down onto it again, the process inducing various cuts and scrapes on her limbs. Bosom heaving heavily, she looked up at her captor, indescribable fear seizing her voice and forbidding her to scream.

The fiend shrugged the weighty fur cape off his broad shoulders, smirking as he did so with a disgustingly perverse look in his eyes. "Now, be a good girl and stay still..."

He was only able to advance a few steps before an unknown figure tobogganed its way in between, colliding with his victim so forcefully that it knocked her down. Recovering from the shock of the intruder's sudden appearance, the bandit leader's slanted eyes widened as he registered the scene.

Nayu barely had time to celebrate her joy when she saw the village medic frantically pushing herself off her after they both fell to the ground; her mind was too busy connecting the blood-stained rock that was clutched in Suseri's hand to the eerily wet sensation on her left cheek.

"N-Nayu..." The blonde's eyes were wide open, filled with a mixture of shock and guilt as they stared at the raven-haired female who was slowly bringing a hand down from her face.

A crimson-stained hand.

Suseri then found her eardrums hurting from two very different noises: a ear-piercing scream of anguish, and a ground-shaking roar of anger.

"YOU SCARRED HER!" The blonde medic snapped herself out from the disorientating effect of the reactions just in time to dodge the oversized waldo that was embedded into the ground that she had been on a mere nanosecond ago. "WHAT USE DO I HAVE FOR HER RIGHT NOW, HUH?"

The raging thug swung around to assess his ruined prey. Her once perfect porcelain skin was now dripping with blood and tears, her once pretty face now maimed. He clenched his blazing eyes shut, bellowing out his rage. "GET THAT UGLY THING OUT OF MY SIGHT!"

"Nayu! NAYU! We need to get out, now!" The yellow-haired girl shook the wailing female, who faced her with tears streaming down from agonised eyes. "Please, escaping is the most important thing now! Nayu, _please!_"

The desperate plea in her voice brought the village belle about from her despair, and both tribeswomen scrambled up to sprint to the small opening in between the bushes. They were barely able to fully emerge from the shrubs before Suseri felt a thick anaconda-like arm yanking her backwards on her waist, and she wasted no time in delivering instructions to her friend.

"RUN, NAYU! GO BACK AND FIND RYUKI! GO! LEAVE ME!"

The obsidian-haired girl could only watch as the thrashing blonde disappeared back into the bushes, and without further delay, followed her orders. She must get help...now!

It was only until she had tripped on a tree root and fell face-first into the dirt that Nayu realised the 'blood' from her face was actually the juice of a red berry.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Chapter Seven:<strong>_

**The Human Heart Has Much to Explore**

* * *

><p>Suseri inwardly apologised to the village belle for scaring her like that, but she needed a genuine reaction from the girl to convince the bandit that she was scarred and hence disposable. Vanity had shaped Nayu into weighing her face as more important than her own life, and the medic knew that seeing the 'damage' from the 'accidental' collision, coupled on with her already disorientated state of mind, would cause the belle to immediately assume her injury.<p>

Now that her companion's safety has been more or less secured, the yellow-haired girl focused to ensure hers as well. Looking around her surroundings, she acknowledged the boiling bandit leader and the fury he was emanating, but what really concerned her was the pale, up-till-then invisible man who had been quietly observing everything from a corner.

"IF I CAN'T HAVE THE KING'S CONCUBINE, THEN _YOU_ WILL HAVE TO SATISFY ME!" The fuming brute lunged for her, and Suseri flung a fistful of dirt at his eyes, causing him to recoil in pain and thus further fuel his anger.

She took the chance to escape through the bushes again, but suddenly found her exit guarded by a pale, lanky figure. _When did he...?_

Sensing the unmistakeable fury behind, Suseri swivelled around to face the bandit leader, who at that moment was probably literally boiling mad. The girl glanced around hopelessly, realising that there was no possible way to escape, and even if there was, her mind was too clouded by fear to think of one. Collapsing onto the ground and preparing to meet her fate, she placed her tongue in between her incisors, deciding to take her own life before he did. She closed her miscoloured eyes, regretting that her last sight was that of a burly, outstretched arm. Then...

_Slice._

Followed by a heavy thud on the ground.

* * *

><p>"I didn't expect that you are one to give up so easily."<p>

As usual, a smirk could not help but work its way up Takasugi's lips as he regarded the stupefied Asato girl, who had forced her eyes open again at the sound of his voice. He turned back to the kneeling brute in front of him, noting that the thug's left arm was lying in a bloody pool on the ground below his katana, then to the half-Yato lurking behind.

The samurai's smirk grew larger as he noticed his opponent reaching for the sword strapped to his waist, and was about to raise his own blade when a bulky figure lunged up, bellowed and charged towards him like a bull seeing red.

"You're a disturbance." In a split second, Takasugi dealt a powerful slash to the bandit leader and whipped his sword up with even more strength and brutality, ruthlessly tearing through the corpse and using it as a cover to attack his real target behind.

Sparks flew as metal met metal, and both Takasugi and the half-Yato pressed on the hilts of their swords to guard against each other while the bandit leader's body fell to the ground in halves with the dueling pair squaring off in between.

"You're not a local." The fiend's accented voice was grainy, and he eyed the Kiheitai leader like a snake would to its prey.

"Well," Takasugi countered, observing that his opponent's eyes, though the same colour of grey, were of different shades. "Apparently, neither are you."

They added surges of strength into their blades and the force sent both sliding backwards, with the samurai stopping right beside his Asato host. It was then he finally noticed the dampening bandages on his chest, which were gradually turning into darker shades of red.

"Earthling-_ssi_! Stop engaging him in battle, your body cannot take any more damage!" Suseri pleaded, desperately tugging on the hem of his robes. "Let's just find an opening now and es-"

"Shut up." Without even sparing her a glance, the purple-haired man dashed forward again.

"Tsk!" Though she had already predicted it, his defiance was still infuriating. The medic watched as both men attacked and guarded against each other relentlessly, the loud clashes of metal piercing her ears. She could tell that the half-Yato, despite his heritage, was not a very skilled fighter; perhaps the peace-embracing Asato blood in his veins had diluted the ferocity of the former. But even so...

Takasugi's eye widened when the opponent's blade moved into his blind spot, and dodged just in time for it to slice the lining of his clothes at the chest.

The Japanese's injuries had hindered his movements a great deal, decreasing his speed by probably more than half, and Suseri could only imagine the pain that he was enduring. However, amidst the bleak atmosphere of the situation, the Asato could not help but admire the samurai's will; she doubt that she could even move with her chest in the process of being split wide open, let alone fight competently.

Feeling more ashamed than ever for giving up before his appearance, the medic scanned her surroundings again, racking her tired mind for a plan to get rid of the half-blooded thug. There is still a possibility of Earthling-ssi defeating him, but Suseri did not want to risk it. Furthermore, the purple-haired man was already coping with some life-threatening wounds, and he certainly did not need any additional ones. _Alright, here are two men fighting to the death, a horribly mutilated corpse on the forest ground, and..._

Wait a minute, the forest...!

Suseri waited for the swordsmen to divert their battle away before frantically scuttling to the bloody mess of a former bandit leader. She stuck a finger up to determine the direction of the wind, and then, gritting her teeth, her hands clamped onto the cold, dead flesh, only to drop them again after a second for her to lurch forward and empty the contents of her stomach. _I can't do this... _

Though the medic had already grown accustomed to seeing mangled flesh and gore, even witnessing unfortunate deaths, she could not condone the sight of this murder. Never before had she seen, or even heard of a person taking away another's life, and she sure as hell prayed that she will not have to experience it again, even if said life belonged to a loathesome leech who had terrorised her village for years. What was worse, it had seemed so easy for the Earthling to kill, and he even _made use_ of the corpse!

A cry of pain jolted Suseri awake from her stupor, forcing her eyes to look to her right. Thank God! It was the half-Yato who received a vicious slash down his chest. But sooner or later, those regenrative traits of his will kick in and restore him back to full health. The thought gave the Asato girl new determination to carry out her plan, and she squeezed her eyes shut and lugged the disgusting mound of flesh to the bushes in the north. There, she heaved and flung it over the hedge, then cupped her crimson-stained hands around her mouth and made an odd noise that sounded like a cross between tuts and clicks.

Takasugi, while crossing his sword with the opponent's, looked at the girl through the corner of his eye. Perhaps her pure, delicate mind had gone mad from the witnessing the slaughter, and decided to carry out some impromptu, insane tribe ritual. Whatever, he had better things to worry about. Like how he, the great, all-powerful leader of the Kiheitai, was actually having difficulty defeating some insignificant half-blood. And to add on, his re-opened injuries were starting to take a serious toll. Curse that Shinra general who brought him down like this.

The redundance of grating blades led to the men backing off to their corners again, both panting heavily. Alerted of their short break, Suseri wisely chose to stop her actions and keep a weary eye on the enemy. Then, the pale, lanky figure relaxed the grip of his sword.

"You are a samurai from Planet Earth, am I right?"

Takasugi almost could not understand the horribly accented japanese. "Yes. Then what about you? A mongrel from Planet Asa?"

"What a bastard you are." The fiend growled, then gave a mirthless laugh. "Honestly, I don't know. All I can remember is that I woke up one day in the middle of a forest with no memory, and found the idiot bandits."

Only a 'hn' as a response to his short story.

"So, seeing that they get free food and money, sometimes women," he threw a leer at Suseri, who flinched, "I decided to follow them. Life had been going really smoothly, until this village came along." The half-Yato launched an attack as he shouted the last few words, and Takasugi was prepared enough to guard against it, though his grip on his sword was weakening.

Rustling leaves and a low, feral growl drew Suseri's attention to the bushes, and she turned behind to investigate. However, her distraction did not go unnoticed by the pale man, who quickly grabbed the girl and positioned his blade at her slender neck.

"Make a move and I will slit her throat." The ruffian hissed, tightening his hold on her while she struggled to pry his arm away from her waist.

"What a coward you are." The purple-haired Japanese smirked, though he did not lower his katana. Frankly, it would not make a difference to him if the girl dies- Fine. It will, considering that he needs her to live comfortably on this planet. _Now, this is a problem..._ Takasugi never had to worry about hostage situations; his men are all skilled enough to evade capture, and even if one of them did get caught, such a weak soldier would be of no use to him. _So, what to do now...?_

He directed his eye down from the thug's hollow face to the blonde's, and held her eyes. Blinking once in mild surprise, he noted that she did not look as terrified as he thought she would be. Panicked, yes, but not hysterically horrified. In fact, there was a certain look in those mismatched orbs...

All of a sudden, Suseri forcefully pushed her body backwards, and the abrupt action took the half-Yato off his feet, causing him to release the girl and stumble back into the bushes.

"You little bitch... I'll-" his sentence was cut off however, when a large, furred animal clamped its jaws down on his shoulder. So shocked he was that he dropped his sword and fell to the ground, where another attacked his arm. Takasugi saw that the animals were canine in appearance, resembling four-eared wolves. Soon, a couple more joined and the half-Yato struggled helplessly as the beasts feasted on him.

His screams eventually disappeared.

Once the wolves had reduced the pale man to half-eaten bones, they quickly turned their predatory eyes onto the remaining duo, growling and slowly stalking towards them. The samurai felt a soft pressure on his back, and turned his head to see the blonde girl clutching tightly on his robes, able to tell that she was more afraid this time. Smirking, he stepped forward and in a swift swing of his blade, brought down the wolf who was the closest to him. Animals have always been incredibly easy to kill.

Intidimated by the dangerous aura emanating from the man, the rest of the pack instinctively turned tail and fled, but not before giving final growls. Takasugi flung blood off his blade and sheathed it, then finally gave in to the agonising pain on his chest and collapsed onto the ground, gasping for air.

"Earthling-_ssi_!"

* * *

><p>Lamps flickered as a breeze passed through, briefly dimming the small hut which housed two figures and an assortment of herbs, concoctions, bloody bandages and whatnots. Suseri gave the long, ugly gash on her patient's chest a final wipe, then bent over to pick up a roll of clean cloth off the floor.<p>

"I'm going to wrap it up now," she informed, breaking the silence. An olive eye blinked up at her, watching the girl, -who was kneeling-, manuever the fabric around his torso with the lightest touch. Takasugi had observed the concentration in her eyes from the start, when she had cleaned and stitched his wound, noting how careful she was so as to make the procedure as painless for him as possible. Somehow, he found himself actually appreciating her efforts in doing so, and it was only then he realized the true importance of medics and the labour they have to go through (he used to think that they had it the easiest since their work wasn't on the battlefield, and whenever he needed aid he would just bark at them to finish quickly).

Sensing the attention she was getting, the blonde girl decided to ask, without moving her eyes away from her job. "What?"

"Nothing."

She could practically hear his smirk. Sighing, she changed the angle of her bandaging to reach the lower back of the sitting man. "It was quite a mess you made up there."

No response.

"_Halmeoni_ had to clean it up before sunrise lest the rest of the village sees it. Only God knows what will happen if children stumble across your work. Which reminds me," a sudden hard tug which hurt enough for the samurai to glare up at her, "how _dare_ you leave Seoki there with all the bodies! You're lucky that Halmeoni was able to move him somewhere else before he woke up."

"Oi, oi. If I had taken the time to cradle him to a cot, you wouldn't be here ungratefully manhandling your savior."

"Hmph. I wonder, who saved who?"

A coarse hand shot up abruptly to grab her wrist, halting the medic's actions. Nailing a look straight into her eyes, Takasugi growled, "I could have handled him without your inteference."

And without faltering, "but not your injuries."

The Kiheitai leader frowned at her gall. _This girl..._ Then, the corners of his lips suddenly curled up, and with his eye still fixed on hers, he started in a mock-curious tone, "there's something I don't get..."

Before Suseri could even react, she found herself leaning backwards with the swordsman hunched over her, firmly supporting her back with one hand. Too firmly. It was then she took note of two things: the close proximity of their faces, and the long, cold blade that was pressed at her neck.

"Why is it that everytime_ this_," -the Asato could feel the increasing pressure on her skin-, "happens, you do not feel fear?"

Takasugi only received a stare as a reply.

"Even now," the malice in his whisper was growing in intensity, "after witnessing my slaughter, you show no panic. _Why?_"

There was a brief pause as she continued to look at him with wide, mismatched eyes. Slowly taking a deep breath through her mouth, the girl prepared her answer.

"Because," her voice was incredibly gentle, and her eyes unblinking, "I know I won't be hurt."

Suseri studied the olive orb, noting how the manic look it held started to dissipate, and how underneath all the malcontentment was something more. Knowing that the samurai was loosening his grip on his sword, the Amanto girl bravely rose up, pushing the blade back, until their eye levels were of equal height.

Takasugi could not deny that he was a little taken aback, though he did not show it. "And what makes you so sure?"

"I wasn't afraid of the bandit, mainly because I know that you wouldn't have let him slit my throat." The girl declared, and he somehow, he could not object to it. "As for you..."

The Joi narrowed his eye, waiting for her to continue.

"It's because I know that you need me for survival on this planet." The heavy atmosphere within the hut took a turn and lightened when the blonde Asato smiled, as though being made use of like a tool was a marvelous thing to her. She placed two fingers on the flat side of the blade, gently pushing it away from her neck. "And this is only the third time."

Then, as if nothing had happened, the medic continued to wrap the bandages around the purple-haired man while he sat there silently with elevating opinions about her. She finished with a knot, then proceeded to clear the mess of bloodied fabrics and medicated concoctions. And when she was done with that, she audaciously did something that Takasugi thought noone would ever do; she took his katana, slid it into its scabbard, and placed it at the other end of the hut, all done without his permission.

However, what bothered the Kiheitai leader was that he responded in a way that he thought he would never do; he did nothing about it.

Turning around with another disarming smile, she warned, "it's dangerous to sleep with swords, whether sheathed or not, Earthling-_ssi_.

You can hurt yourself."

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: Oh my God I am so, so, so, so, sooooo sorry for the incredibly long update. Things have been crazy for me. I'm just so busy oh God I can't wait for school to be over. Even in the holidays I'm busy! And I'm even MORE sorry that this chapter isn't up to standard. Honestly, I think that the long absence has dulled my writing skills (that aren't exactly excellent from the start), and thus I am incredibly unsatisfied with the diction used in this chapter. I'm so sorry to post something that isn't the best of what I can do, but I really wanted to post one up. If it is of any comfort, I'll rewrite this chapter too! So please give me your opinions on this one! I hope Takasugi's character is still in check (SORRY IF I MADE HIM SOUND WEAK, BUT HE IS ONLY HUMAN AFTER ALL), and whatever Suseri didsaid was relevant and made sense. **

**Again, I'm sorry that I won't be able to reply to reviews individually (I'm actually rushing this hehe). To all you readers, thank you so much for taking time to read this, and I really hope you all like it! To all those who followed and reviewed, thank you for not giving up on this failure of a writer (OTL)! Everytime I read the stuff you guys say, I would be inspired to write more and more (BUT GODDAMNIT, THE TIME). **

**I'll try my best to squeeze one more chapter (it will be lighthearted, filler-y kinda stuff though) before the new year starts. So... SEE YOU ALL SOON!**


	9. The Human Heart Thaws

_Burning trees. Hut roofs ignited. Running people set aflame._

Suseri clamped her eyes shut.

_Crackling fire. Thunders of fallen architecture. Screams._

The girl grasped the sides of her head, blocking her ears.

_Suffocating smoke. The rancid stench of charred wood and flesh._

She held her breath.

_Why is this happening...? What happened to everybody? What happened to _Eomma, Appa, Halmeoni_ and Seoki? To Ryuki and Nayu?_

_To Earthling-_ssi_?_

Wrenching her lids apart, she shot up and sprinted through the flaming chaos and towards her home, praying that it is still salvageable and protecting her loved ones. Then, she caught sight of a little figure sprawled on the ground.

"SEOKI!"

Sliding onto the heated dirt, she raised the unconscious boy to her lap, assessing the grievous wounds on his head and body.

"_Seoki! Hang in there! Noona will help you soon, okay? Noona will make it all better, so hang in there!"_ Suseri blabbered in her native tongue, voice choked by the lump in her throat. She lifted the boy up, lugging him in her arms and running the fastest she could forwards.

"EOMMA! APPA! HALMEONI!_" _Tears were streaming down her face, her pace fettered by the extra weight she was barely managing. "RYUKI! NAYU!"

A bump on the road caught her foot and the medic lunged forward, the burden in her arms yanking her down. She cried even harder and screamed when the impact and caused the boy to cough out more blood.

"_Seoki!" _Suseri could barely speak, her vision blinded by tears. She pressed her body down while hugging his. "_Don't scare Noona! SEOKI!"_

The sudden arrival of an unknown presence made itself known to the sobbing girl by stepping right in front of her. Eyes only seeing two straw slippers, the girl slowly inched her neck up. She was about to reach the stranger's face when...

Her eyes snapped wide open, breathing erratic and chest heaving. Feeling a wet sensation on her left cheek which she was resting on, Suseri blinked and realised that sweat was not the only liquid dampening it; she was crying in her sleep. Then, the blurry veil was lifted from her vision, and her first sight was that of an olive eye observing her from about two metres away.

"Had a bad dream?"

* * *

><p><em><strong>Chapter Eight:<strong>_

**The Human Heart Thaws**

* * *

><p>Suseri shot the purple-haired man a nonplussed look. "Good morning to you too."<p>

Takasugi idly watched as the girl promptly stood up, dusted herself and disappeared through the tiny door in the back of the hut, just as how he had watched her struggle, cry and hyperventilate in her slumber. Somehow, while his dark nature liked seeing her breaking down like that, he decided that such a tortured disposition did not suit her. She was really better off being well and sound, smiling and cheerful.

As if on cue, Suseri appeared again, having washed herself up and looking fresher than before, complete with a light smile on her lips. She then proceeded to roll up the mattresses on the floor to put them aside.

"You looked quite distressed," Takasugi drawled, his cheek pressed against the back of his hand, "want to talk about it?"

"I didn't know that you took interest in girls' nightmares regarding giant spiders and ruined hair," the blonde replied, her smile quirking up even higher. "I'm fine, Earthling-_ssi."_

"Hn."

She stepped towards the man, and instructed him to turn around so casually, almost as if it was out of habit. He sighed and did as he was told, shrugging the loose robes off his shoulders for his daily morning check-up. Lightly, she informed, "I'm going to cut the bandages off, so stay still." Takasugi observed as the medic did her thing, narrowing his eye while he pondered about her.

Unexpectedly and unwittingly, the infamously detached Kiheitai leader was opening himself up to the simple, alien village girl. Never before had he felt so dependent on an individual, and never before had he trusted somebody the way he trusts her. It was different from Bansai, Matako and Takechi, where he would have utmost confidence in them for getting missions done and covering his back. But with Suseri, he felt relaxed, free, _genuine_; like he could show her, and only her his hitherto hidden vulnerable side (not that she has not seen it already...). In reciprocation, the human knew that she trusts him as much too, feeling comfortable enough to be sleeping in the same room as him every night, citing her need to be able to assist him immediately should he require help. This was of significance as the conservative nature of the Asato tribespeople disapproves of unmarried girls sharing the night with men, and the fact that despite being aware of the Joi soldier's innate bloodlust, she could sleep as soundly as a baby with him and a sword a couple of feet beside. In addition, the blonde would blabber on about almost everything to him, from idle chatter to her innermost thoughts and feelings that not even Halmeoni knew of. Though more often than not he found it senseless, annoying and plain stupid, it was interesting for him to know more about the girl.

It has been a very long time since Takasugi was able to enjoy such a luxury, and he was not sure if he liked it or not.

"Your wounds are more or less healed! You're making very good progress, Earthling-_ssi_!" a spritely voice chirped, gently tugging him out of his thoughts. "Just in time."

Collecting himself in an instant, the purple-haired man took a puff of his kiseru. "Ho? For what?"

Unable to contain herself, the girl grinned wider than the Cheshire cat and brighter than the Sun.

"The_ oncheon, _of course!"

* * *

><p>Every Japanese loves the hot springs, and even treacherous, hard-assed criminals like Takasugi are no exception. It is near impossible to not find the steam coating his skin relaxing, the warmth seeping into his bones comforting, and the water washing the day's stains away therapeutic...<p>

...only if he wasn't sharing the pool with about seventy other men.

"Earthling-_ssi_, our village's hero! There is no way of measuring the depth of our gratitude towards you for getting rid of those hateful bandits! There is no way of ever fully repaying the favour you have done us! The parties we have thrown are nothing, nothing at all! So please, do enjoy one of our village's proudest features, the completely natural hot springs!" Hamada-nari croaked to the purple-haired man appreciatively, and accented masculine voices behind chorused their approval.

"Isn't that great, Earthling-_ssi_? You even got the best spot of the pool!" A certain orphan boy chirped, fists balled up in excitement.

"Is there anything you want right now? _Soju_, perhaps? Or somebody to scrub your back for you?" The old village head turned around to address a bulky-looking farmer. "Ubuki, you have the best hands, so please give our saviour a-"

"There's no need for that," the samurai interrupted curtly before the man could move. He had his arms crossed and mind wondering how everybody else could be so annoyingly oblivious to the frown weighted on his brow._ It has been a week after the incident with the bandits already, and they are still celebrating over it. Don't they tire?_

"Then please, tell us what you would like!"

He considered for a while before sighing out his request, "...a little more space would be nice."

With hurried splashes, Takasugi found his corner void of Asato presence, the men having migrated to the other side of the incredibly large pool. Exhaling sharply through his nose, he lifted his arms to rest them against the hot surface of the rocks and closed his eye, trying to find peace admist all the villagers' yakking which he could hear from three metres away. However, ripples soon stirred him up again and he shot an irritated glare to the person who dared to intrude on his time alone.

"I know that you must be tired of hearing this over and over again, but I must personally say it to you, if not I would not be able to put my heart to rest!" Ryuki bowed so deeply to the indifferent Japanese that his face was just an inch above the steaming water surface. "I simply cannot thank you enough for protecting our village, for saving Nayu and Suseri!"

"I get it," the Earthling drawled dismissively, hoping that the brunette will get his underlying message of "now leave me alone". He inwardly cursed a certain medic girl for leading him on with the expectations of enjoying a good, relaxing soak at an onsen and _so_ _conveniently _leaving out the part where the entire village would be accompanying him too...

"_Ho, for what?"_

"_The _oncheon_, of course!" The girl beamed excitedly. "One of the treasures of this area is the 100% natural hot spring in the mountains behind the forest. I dare say that it's one of the biggest on this planet, considering its lake-sized pool, and definitely one with the best scenery. Not to mention, its waters are so laden with minerals that just ten minutes of soaking will relieve any ache in your body. To top it all off, the temperature is known to be the best in this season!" _

_She clapped her hands to her face and sighed. "Ah, thinking about it makes me want to go more! It's thanks to _halmeoni _for regularly bringing me to the _oncheon_ since childhood that my complexion is this good."_

"_Complexion like yours is a norm for all girls," Takasugi deadpanned bluntly, earning a twitch from the Asato, "but the onsen you described sounds impressive. It'll probably be the only thing that is worth looking forward to in this place."_

"_Hmph, you won't know the true beauty of it yet till you're in it, Earthling-_ssi_," she smirked somewhat proudly, "the trek there will be quite tough, but it will all be forgotten the moment you immerse yourself in those waters. Finish your breakfast quickly, and the two of us will be enjoying life, away from the village in no time!"_

The Kiheitai leader scowled. _"Two of us" and "away from the village", my ass._ Reminding himself of how she had pushed him to the group of villagers treading on the trail towards the mountains (citing the need to complete some household chores first), he started to harbour thoughts of slitting the girl's throat in her sleep tonight. Speaking of which...

"Where is Suseri?"

Ryuki, having already settled into the water, pointed and looked above Takasugi. "The wall of rocks that you're leaning on separates the two halves of this _oncheon_. The women bathe on the other side."

An awkward pause filled the space between the two serious characters.

"...I doubt that you're the type to do so, but if you attempt anything shameless, we, the men of this village will not condone it. No matter if you're our saviour."

"Heh, as if there is anything for me to look at," the samurai scoffed. He decided that the hunter would make tolerable company, and inclined his head to rest it on the black stones, gazing at the clear blue skies and vibrantly green trees. The surrounding forest exuded tranqulity with its flowering flora, the petals of which fall gracefully onto the surface of the pool. Plus, if he looked hard enough, a range of mountains was visible in the far distance given the location of the hot springs, framing the golden Sun draped majestically across the sky. True to Suseri's words, there is no beauty like nature.

Thankfully, with every passing minute the pool got less and less crowded, its younger occupants unable to take the heat and the elders remembering household responsibilites back home. Soon enough, the seventy-strong group of men was reduced to ten, Takasugi and Ryuki included. The former closed his eye and sinked deeper into the water, finally being able to enjoy the peace of an empty pool after 30 minutes of naked Amanto men and their guffaws. He was sure that the women's side was no less vacated given the decreasing volume of the extremely audible chatter that all females like to have while in any onsen, an example being the one held now...

"Suseri, you're so right about coming to the _oncheon_ later, it's so empty now!"

"It's almost like we can have the whole place to ourselves!"

And the voice he was the most familiar with: "Hehe, everything is about strategy."

_I'm going to kill her... _a wry smile snaked up the Joi's lips. Misintepreting the dark aura emitting from the foreigner, Ryuki raised a hand to cup his mouth and called out good-naturedly. "Oi, we aren't interested in your chit-chat, so keep it down!"

A raven-haired head popped out above the rock, and brown and green eyes lighted up with joy as they recognised the faces below. "_Oppa_! Ah, Earthling-_ssi _is here too!"

"Eh?!"

"_Jeong-mal-yo, _Nayu_?_"

Several more heads emerged excitedly, all of them belonging to the younger women of the hamlet and some blushing shyly. Takasugi felt his tolerance level hitting its maximum limit when a certain blonde head peeked over as well.

"Ah, Earthling-_ssi_! How do you like our _oncheon_? Really soothing, isn't it?"

She was promptly shot down with a cold glare, but as usual, her smile did not falter from his icy response.

"...How about we leave them alone and go to the waterfall area? It's much better there!"

"Huh...! Alright then, see you soon, boys!" Nayu pouted at Suseri, winked to the men and then disappeared as quickly as she appeared. The other girls followed suit, and their absence was confirmed with peaceful silence.

The brunette chuckled and got out of the water to sit on the rocks, protecting his modesty with a towel. "You've become quite adored by the girls in the village, you know."

"Heh," the human smirked derisively, "sorry for taking the spotlight away from you, then."

"Nothing to apologize for. I don't want to sound vain or narcissistic, but I really do not know how to respond to their infatuations." Mismatched eyes wandered into the lush forest, and Ryuki muttered almost inaudibly, "especially when I already have somebody in my mind and heart..."

Takasugi never thought that he would engage in a talk about something as ridiculous as romance. The last time he did was during his younger days with Gintoki and Zura, where the silver-haired idiot made comments about which girl they knew would make a good girlfriend, and would be countered by their long-haired friend that older women undoubtedly make the best choice. But even then his participation was incredibly limited. By the time they were involved in the war against the bakufu, he had lost all interest in such matters.

Deciding that a little mindless coffee(or more like heated water) talk would not hurt, the Joi turned his line of sight to the scenic botany as well. "The prettiest one, I suppose?"

The silence meant consent.

It was the purple-haired man's turn to chuckle, and he unsympathatically drawled, "Suseri's heart will break if she finds out."

"No." Ryuki rebuked after a short pause. "Suseri... our relationship will only remain as that of brother and sister. Your host is quite a complex one. A mere village hunter like me will not be able to provide the kind of companionship that she wants and needs. She may not admit it, nor will she even acknowledge it, but this idyllic place is holding her back. She's made for greater things. For greater places. For greater people."

He said the last line while looking thoughtfully at his human company, whose expression was hidden by bandages that encased the visible angle of his face. "She's become quite fond of you, you know."

No reply.

Lifting his body up and standing on both feet, the brunette turned to make his exit. "Earthling-_ssi_, you've only been with us for a little more than a month, but it is clear to us all that you're no ordinary man. Maybe, just maybe..." he cast his green and golden eyes down.

"She will be able to find a better friend, a better partner in you."

Once the pattering of footsteps had vanished, Takasugi leant his head backwards and sighed through his nose.

"As if something like that will ever happen."

* * *

><p>"Hey, hey, Na-yu! Spill the beans about Ryuki-<em>oppa<em> and you!"

A flushed face and flustered smile. "E-eh?"

Hana leant forwards, her smile cheeky and cat-like. "Come on, it's so obvious! Especially that night when the bandit leader took you away. When he found out, he looked ready to kill!"

"Hmm, hmm!" A girl in braids beside her nodded in agreement. "Not to mention, the subsequent nights when you would get nightmares about it, I heard that he was always on standby to comfort you!"

The raven-haired beauty blushed under the pressure of her friends, wanting so much to tell them about their relationship, but her eyes looked uncertainly at the back of the blonde medic who was pouring water over her shoulders a metre away, knowing and considerate of her feelings towards the hunter as well. "Girls, there's not-"

"There's definitely something!" Suseri turned around, sporting a genuinely teasing grin and wading closer to the group. "Go on, tell us, Nayu! If not, we aren't friends anymore!"

_Suseri..._ Grateful for her understanding and acceptance, the village belle smiled and began to indulge. "Well, how do I say this... If it weren't for oppa, I would have gone insane from that traumatic night with the bandit leader. Whenever I'm afraid, insecure, or upset, he will always be there to make it all comfort me. He will always be there to make me happy, safe, and content. And because of that, I'll always strive to become a better woman, a better person, one who he can rely on as well."

"_U-Unni_..." Nayu looked up to see tearful faces gushing over her declaration of love. "Unni! You have our full support! We will never fantasize about Ryuki-oppa anymore! He's all yours to pursue!"

"H-Hey, now..." She fanned her hands to calm them down, unsure of her response, when she noticed a bittersweet smile in her corner. "Suseri..."

The yellow-haired girl could not help but suffer a stabbing pain to her heart, not because of the concrete, sincere confession from a prettier rival, but because she had acknowledged that she can never love the huntsman as deeply as the belle did. Suseri had admired the steadfast, reliable and gentle qualities of Ryuki ever since she had started noticing him in her teens, and through the years it has evolved into something more, akin to major infatuation. She did love him, but it was only now she had realised that she loved the man as a brother.

Nayu anxiously waited for the medic to respond, and she bit her lip when the other Asato sighed loudly. "My, my, did studying literature make you all corny and mushy? But, I guess it's the melodramatic things that touch a girl's heart." Then, a thumbs-up was brandished in her face, complete with an earnest grin that held only the best wishes. "Nayu, you have my support as well! Just don't ask me to brew any love potion to aid you in your quest. Considering _oppa_'s uptight nature, it will be hard for him to do anything romantic for you."

A heavy load was lifted with those few sentences, and the raven-haired beauty smirked with mild snubbing. "I'm not like you, Suseri. I'll claim oppa's heart with my own God-given qualities myself. Just you girls wait, in no time you'll all be attending our wedd-"

A heavy atmosphere set in when the group was reminded of the fate that befalls on the most beautiful woman in the village; a wedding between them will be impossible. Quickly seizing the chance to prevent the mood from souring, Hana stretched with a carefree exclamation. "Ah! It's far too hot. I'm getting out."

"Me too!"

Nayu stood up as well, her cheeks flushed from the heat. "I guess I will too, then."

"What a waste. An oncheon is best enjoyed when you've soaked till all your skin becomes pruny!" Suseri pressed her chest onto the rocks, closing her eyes and breathing in the steam to warm her face.

Her friend stuck out a tongue mischieviously. "We're not old women like you! Poor Earthling-_ssi_, being taken care of by two_ halmeoni_."

Tying a knot to secure her robe, Hana joined in teasingly. "Speaking of Earthling-_ssi, _how about you, Suseri? Any development?"

A girl with orange hair and freckles brightened her eyes with enthusiasm. "That's right! Earthling-_ssi_'s been following you around ever since he came to our village. And now, you even sleep in his hut! Surely, there must be something!"

"What are you talking about?" The girl in question flicked a wrist dismissively. "He's under my care, so obviously he would be around me all the time. And I've said it countless times, I'm just there to monitor his injuries. There is nothing, n-o-t-h-i-n-g going on!"

"Hmm, but it feels like there is! I caught him staring at you once or twice." Another youth with dark green hair stuck her bottom lip out. "How lucky you are if he does fancy you! Though his bandaged face looks somewhat scary, Earthling-ssi is actually very handsome! Not to mention, he's the saviour of our village!"

Sounds of agreement chorused through the misty springs.

Suseri exhaled tiredly, sinking her body further into the water. "You girls have no idea. Underneath that cool exterior, Earthling-ssi's a really gloomy person, and everything he does is based on his mood. You all are the lucky ones who don't have to put up with his attitude!"

"That's a little harsh, unni!"

"Well, he has his charming side, I guess. Anyway, he's only here for a short period of time until his injuries are all healed, and with that, he'll be gone. Building a relationship now will only deepen the attachment."

Opening her eyes, the blonde girl contemplated for a moment before sighing through her nose.

"And in turn, it will become all the more harder to part."

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: OMG IT'S BEEN SO LONG I DON'T EVEN. Again, I am so so so so sososoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo sorry that I not only couldn't update before the new year starts, but also took a freaking long time to do so School is crazy and I'll be taking a major exam this year so thing's are getting pretty hectic. I swear, my complexion's gotten all bad with the stress (why am I telling you guys that anyway? LOL) I am truly sorry to all you readers! Please forgive me OTL<strong>

**I guess this chapter's the Onsen Episode? I hope that I didn't make Takasugi OOC here... He's a really tough one to write about! And now that I think about it, Suseri is easy, yet tough to write (does that make sense?) I really need you guys' opinions on this! I have thought out this story's main plot to its end, all I gotta do is flesh it out with all the details and I don't think that it will be easy x.x**

**ANDDDD so sorry for uploading this chap and then taking it off and putting it back on. I realised that I uploaded the draft without the A/N in it. Well, not that it matters, but I feel kinda cold and bad if I didn't put in the A/N... Especially when I've taken sooooo long to update (I'M SORRY!)**

**THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR THE REVIEWS AGAIN! It's really heartening and inspiring to see an email from about getting a new review :') **

**To Ms Anna Banana, PurePrincess, little101, blueberry761, Guest, PheonixRage92, Whynot, Chia Joey and Skylark guest, really, thank you so very much for your reviews! Rest assured that I will NEVER abandon this, or any of my other stories EVER! (though I WILL/MAY take a VERY long time to update...) And of course, thank you to all those who have read, favourited, and followed this fic of mine as well! :)**

**I'll try my bestest to have a new chap up ASAP. Until then, SEE YA (AND LEAVE A REVIEW PLEASE I NEED TO KNOW IF I'M STILL KEEPING TAKASUGI ON TRACK AND IF MY PLOT/CHARACTERS ARE AT LEAST DECENT OR INTERESTING!)**


	10. The Human Heart Feels

"Come here, Earthling-_ssi_..."

Takasugi eased himself into a wooden chair and took out a box of matches, his actions languid and habitual.

"Earthling-_ssi_?"

He struck a stick and lit the kiseru held between his lips, watching its bowl smother up in smoke.

"Earthling-_ssi._"

Taking a long, deliberate drag on the pipe, he allowed the fumes to fill his lungs up to their maximum capacity, relishing the addictive rush before-

"Earthling-_ssi_!"

-exhaling it out to suck in fresh air. His eye sub-consciously studied the old, messy features of the small house he has gingerly grown so accustomed to, glazing over the foreign characters that adorned various pots of dried herbs and the likes. He moved to raise the hand which held the pipe-

"_Earthling-_ssi!"

-and found it gripping his unsheathed katana that was pressed against the neck of a yellow-haired alien girl, his body having settled behind hers at the outer porch of the house in a blink of an eye.

"Don't treat me like a pet dog, I won't come to you as and when you please." His words were blatantly drenched in spiteful venom, but somehow ignored by the one they were directed at.

Suseri slightly turned her head to offer an easy smile. "Not bad, Earthling-_ssi_. This time, I only had to call your name five times before you would-"

The purple-haired man silenced her mouth by roughly pushing her chin up with the scabbard, exhaling through his nose irritatedly and then withdrawing the sword altogether. "What do you want?"

"There's wild bear in our garden," her voice was laden with forced calmness, "please get rid of it."

He lazily raised his head to follow the direction she was pointing at, and sure enough, saw a large, brown bear with four stubby ears that was sniffing curiously at the household's crops, showing particular interest towards the pumpkins. The Kiheitai leader blinked several times, unsure of what to think of the random situation, then sighed defeatedly and lifted his body off the wooden platform, strolling towards the animal and flicking out the blade of his sword by the hilt with a thumb.

He briefly paused, but did not look back, when he heard her calling out again. "When I said to get rid of it, I meant only to_ chase _it away, okay? _Halmeoni_ finds bear meat far too tough to eat and she doesn't like blood all over our vegetables."

The samurai briefly entertained the thought of performing seppuku before jamming the shaft backwards with more force than necessary and resuming his steps.

With a pair of zori only two metres away from its paws, the bear intidimatingly drew to its full height to greet the intruder who dared interrupt its food selection. A loud, warning growl rumbled out of its fang-filled mouth and knife-like claws waved threateningly.

However, even beasts know better than to antagonise the greater predator. All Takasugi had to do was to nail a piercing glare into the dual-coloured eyes of the bear and the animal was quickly on its way back to the forest (with the largest pumpkin dangling from its mouth). The human made sure that it was completely out of sight before slinking both arms under his robes and nonchantly walked back to the house, inexplicably pleased with himself when a relieved and grateful look was sent his way. Somewhat. Just a little bit.

"I'm _so_ sorry but I wasn't able to stop Mr Bear from stealing dinner away," he smirked mockingly and closed his eye as a passing bird whistled above him. When no comment countered his careless statement, the purple-haired man felt his lips quirk up even higher. "What, are you-"

"Shh!"

Abandoning his light-hearted mood with a quick frown, Takasugi was ready to make the girl suffer for hushing him again (especially after he had done her favour) when he noticed a perturbed expression in the mismatched eyes. "Oi, what happened?"

He could not deny that her sudden agitated manner alarmed him. Suseri cupped her right ear in a daze. "Earthling-_ssi_, do you hear anything?"

Annoyance bubbled within the Kiheitai leader. "All I hear is a little bird whistling continuously. What, does that scare you too?"

The moment he spat out those words however, the aghast Asato girl moved her hands to her mouth to cover her erratic breathing as realization kicked in. Blue and red abruptly shot towards the landscape beyond the garden as her body shot past a perplexed human and down the slight hill that bordered her land from the wild, madly searching the long grasses for something.

Or someone.

"_EOMMA_!"

* * *

><p><em><strong>Chapter Nine:<strong>_

**The Human Heart Feels**

* * *

><p>Indolence once again fell upon Takasugi as he sat on the windowsill of his hut, his back forming a hunched hypotenuse to the right-angle of the frame. So jaded was he that even a soft knock and push on the wooden door incited no reaction from him, and his eye remained glued to the outside greenery despite the obvious, fidgeting presence that shuffled in.<p>

"G-Good morning, Earthling-_ssi_!" Hana let out an unrestrained squeak when the enigmatic foreigner's idle gaze landed on her. Repeatedly glancing from her knotted hands to his bored face, she continued, "u-um, Suseri asked me to cover y-your morning c-checkup for today. She said that all I have to do is to look for any broken stitches or worsening wounds or s-something like that."

The human regarded the blushing Amanto for a few seconds before coldly turning back to the scenery. "No need."

"E-Eh?"

"Just tell her that I'm doing fine."

"B-But..." Hana cast her eyes downwards dejectedly. He really is as unfriendly as the medic had said. Sighing, she bent down to pick up a neatly wrapped box off the ground. "She also told me to prepare breakfast, so... h-here it is."

Takasugi lazily peeled off the embroidered cloth and lifted the lacquered lid off the box, studying its contents with a slight smirk dawning upon his lips. _So muc__h better than the bread and salted fish that Seoki's been feeding me for the past week..._ Then, he blinked back up to the girl and drawled in a flat voice, "_komawo_."

His intonation was completely off, but the dazzled Asato faintly giggled with glee. Suseri is wrong after all! She raised a hand to her blushing cheek and flapped the other shyly. "_C-C-Chunmaneyo_! If Earthling-_ssi_ wants, I can make breakfast for him everyday!"

Her gushing and offer were promptly ignored. "Is Suseri busy?"

"Ah, _unni_ hasn't left her mother's side since that day," Hana informed, still blissfully light-headed. "I guess that is a given, the poor girl hasn't seen her parents for more than a decade! But surely they could have been reunited in a better way..."

"What happened to the woman anyway?" The purple-haired man decided to entertain her while he replaced the cover over the box and made to fold the soft fabric.

"_Ahjumma_ is amazing!" The sudden wonder in her voice was clear. "I heard that she travelled all the way here from the city by foot! Apparently, she stole some fruit from a bear in the mountains nearby because she was so starved, and the bear chased her all the way here. That's why she's so exhausted and malnourished!"

He secured the final knot before inquiring half-heartedly, "why her sudden appearance?"

"Nobody knows either... It is even weirder that _ahjussi_ didn't come back too! Though she's already conscious, we are all waiting for _ahjumma_ to regain her strength before asking any questions."

The japanese turned to gaze outside for one last time, enjoying the final few seconds of his lazy stupor. "What about that silly girl? I suppose that she's handling quite a shock."

"Well, _unni_ has been barely eating since, only taking a few sips of water... I even heard that she's hardly getting any sleep!" The villager's shoulders slumped along with her mood. "We understand why she wouldn't be having any appetite, but still...! Everyone is worried for her too."

"I see..." Sliding off the windowsill, the human made to pad across the hut to the door. "Then, I guess I should go pay them a visit."

"E-Eh? You can't...!" Alarmed by his abrupt action, the orange-haired girl clambered after, fruitlessly trying to stop him. "Earthling-_ssi,_ nobody is to disturb them till _ahjumm__a_ is fit enough to walk! Earthling-_ssi_! _Halmeoni_ is keeping watch!"

"_Ya_, Earthling-_ssi_!" Hana gave up as his back disappeared from her sight, and she gripped her dark brown hair in exasperation. "_Aissi._..! I'm so getting a scolding!"

* * *

><p>The burning wood went in and out of focus as Suseri struggled to keep her eyes open. Back hunched on a chair and forearms rested upon her knees, the girl was helpless against the irresistable lure of sleep and allowed her head to fall between her arms, unaware of the darkening ceramic before her.<p>

She could barely enjoy her minute-long nap before the odour of smoke became too pungent to endure and her body jerked back with a gasp, half-expecting flames to scorch her face. Instead of seeing bright orange however, her eyes settled onto a small mass of charred wood and straw, while her clogs were dampened by trickling water.

"My, my, what a mess."

The blonde glanced up, realising that the smoke also came from the pipe of a smirking one-eyed man whose left hand dropped a freshly emptied pail. Blinking repeatedly to straighten her vision, she then gathered her face into her palms to rub it slowly. "Why are you here?"

"Heh, what a tone to use on a visitor. And savior, if I might add." Takasugi settled himself onto a wooden bench in the corner of the open air kitchen, raising a leg onto it and leaving the other on the ground, while his katana laid against the wall. "I heard that somebody hasn't been eating nor sleeping properly, and that unsightly appearance suggests that it's you."

"Oh, sorry then. I didn't know that you would nice enough to bring me breakfast." Suseri could not help but smile when she saw the purple-haired man unwrapping a food cotainer, the act inciting a pang in her stomach. She decided to check the porridge she had been cooking first, stirring the watery (and thankfully unburnt) contents before turning to walk over to her companion.

The Kiheitai leader swallowed a piece of seasoned meat. "What are you talking about?"

Said smile soured as the medic's twitching eyes regarded the japanese picking rice up from the square box with a pair of chopsticks, and it disappeared altogether with his comment. "That Hana girl cooks and serves much better than you do."

"How convenient, I won't have time to tend to you for a few days, so you'll be able to eat her food until then," she gritted out through clenched teeth and returned to the stove to pour a spoonful of porridge into a bowl, which she onto a tray and started her exit from the kitchen. "Or if you want, I can arrange for you to have her cooking everyday from now on."

"Sounds good to me."

The provoking tone in his words fell on deaf ears as Suseri padded down the corridor with her nose angled up, leaving the amused samurai alone in the open-aired room. Her expression softened considerably when she reached a framed door, which she gently slid open while kneeling on the wooden floor.

"Eomma, _your porridge is ready_," she informed smilingly in her native tongue, happy to see her mother strong enough to be sitting up straight without strain.

"_That's my good Susu_!" The black-haired woman praised lovingly while accepting the tray. She then raised a hand and allowed it to carress her daughter's cheek, eyes wavering and reflecting the explosion of emotions in her heart that threatened to overwhelm her entire being. "_I've thought and dreamt about you every night in the palace, but never did I imagine that you would become so beautiful_."

The younger Asato could subdue neither the blush on her face nor the thumping in her chest, and thus flicked a wrist awkwardly in what was supposed to be a dismissive manner. "_Not as beautiful as you or Nayu_!"

Her mother withdrew her hand to set it beside the porridge, tender smile only increasing in affection. _"Surely the boys in the village are all lining up to be your suitors, no?" _

"_N-No! Not at all, not at all_!" The blonde was beyond flustered, fists twising the hem of her dress. "_I'm so useless, I can't even bring a man home even at my age!"_

_"You're only twenty, my dear."_

_"That's past the village's marriageable age of eighteen!"_

_"Well, I married your father at twenty-one." _Suddenly, the smile turned bittersweet and her eyes fell to the cooling porridge. "_If only he could see how pretty his daughter has become."_

Suseri ceased her actions, and a numbing sensation crept up her heart upon noting the unsettling look in her mother's yellow and green eyes, and the regret and grief that wraught her voice. Something had happened. Something bad had definitely happened. Something-she feared-, _disastrous_.

"Eomma," she controlled her trembling voice, "_what happened... to_ appa?"

The stagnant silence confirmed her fear, but gave no details. Time slowed down, and the painful beating in her chest grew harder with every resonating thump as she anticipated the answer. By the time her mother had opened her mouth after much contemplation, her entire body was frozen. "Suseri_, your father-_"

"Oi, silly girl."

The door had slid open so abruptly and startlingly that both women gasped and snapped towards the purple-clad man leaning on the frame, their eyes wide and mind temporarily empty. The elder one was the first to recover.

Her lips broke out in a warm smile. _"And you said that you couldn't bring a man home. Hmm, probably a little roguish for your father's approval, but still a good-looking man."_

Her daughter's reaction was however, not as welcoming. The girl shot up and furiously stamped her way towards the intruder, eyes as blazing as coals and brows furrowed. "Earthling-_ssi_! What are you doing here?!"

To be honest, Takasugi was quite taken aback by this unprecedented level of anger from the normally calm girl. He mirrorred her frown, but his eye remained its usual state of cool as he gazed down at the fuming girl, not allowing her to affect him the slightest. Although, her current disposition _did_ interest him... He was about to reply when an unfamiliar voice sounded from the mattress and drew both their attention towards it.

"Earthling-_ssi_?" The woman, he noticed, was weakened externally but strong internally as portrayed by her regal, composed demeanor. Definitely a woman who has seen and experienced much more than she should have even with her age. Her short, straight, black hair swung softly with a turn of her head and she spoke in her local language. "Suseri, _he's from_... _outside_?"

"Yes. His," the blonde girl faltered slightly in her reply as she searched for the word that named the foreign machine, "vehicle crashed in the mountains nearby and I brought him here to treat his injuries. Don't worry, he's not harmful. He's okay."

"I see." The woman followed her daughter's example and switched to using japanese out of courtesy for the foreigner, although her expression and speech were still taut. She addressed the man directly. "I hope that our village accomodates you well."

The Kiheitai leader did not feel the need to reply, merely returning the empty stare. His interest was directed to the girl again when she raised her voice. "So? If you don't have a good reason then please leave."

"_Omo!_ How can you use such a tone on our guest, you stupid girl!" a third female voice entered, albeit far more gravelly. Halmeoni ambled into the scene from the room's balcony porch and stalked straight ahead to pull on her granddaughter's left ear. "Earthling-_ssi_ came looking for you because I asked him to, and it's so that he can tell you to eat your first proper meal in day! This ungrateful girl...!"

"Ow-Ow-Ow-Ow-Ow-Ow-Ow _Halmeoni_, let go, let go!"

"I'm so very sorry, Earthling-_ssi_," the geriatrician dipped her head down repeatedly after releasing her grip, "she will definitely apologise to you and it definitely won't happen again!"

"It's fine," Takasugi sighed and motioned a hand dismissively before slinking it back under his robes while nailing a look on the young grimacing Asato girl that only she could see. "I'm sure she _will_ explain to me why she was so upset."

Whatever iota of anger Suseri possessed vanished instantly under the intense glare she received, and in its place filled guilt, along with a small pinch of apprehension. It wasn't his fault the slightest. The human really did not know that he came in the wrong timing after all, and the Amanto portrayed this realisation by huffing and looking away in a contrasting mixture of both indignance and embarrassment.

"_Eomeonim_, Suseri did nothing wrong. She doesn't have to apologise." The woman, whose eyes were closed and actions noticeably stiff, helped herself to the now-cold porridge. Takasugi picked up on the prevailent tension in the room immediately, a majority of which came from the old woman, who slapped her forhead with a wrinkled palm. "Ah, how can I forget? A formal introduction! Earthling-_ssi_, this is-"

"Just call me Mai. Or Mai-_ssi_, as you are supposed to." Still terse, and increasingly hostile. She then spoke a string of words unidentifiable to him. "_There's no way I'm allowing some alien call me 'e_omma'."

Halmeoni made a noise which sounded akin to a cross between a warning hiss and a tut, then swivelled to the youngest Asato and began hustling her out. "Anyway, go and eat, Suseri! And no argueing! I've already poured a bowl of your porridge in the kitchen. If that's not enough, there's meat in the pot. Go, go!"

"But..!"

"Suseri, listen to your_ halmeoni_. Don't worry about me, I'm much better now." The blonde girl watched as her mother stood up as if to exemplify her claim, but was not persuaded as she opened her mouth to protest. " But, _eomma_...!"

The woman shot her a warning look. "Suseri."

Her lips were about to part again but instead formed an annoyed pout, and she shot reproachful eyes at every other person in the room before squeezing them shut and groaning in exasperation. "Ah,_ jjin-jja_!"

She then violently brushed past the human in her angry quest towards the kitchen, who nodded to the remaining women, -his eye especially narrowed at the darker-haired one-, before following suit.

* * *

><p>"Oi, silly girl."<p>

Takasugi closed the gap between his feet, pressed the weight of his shoulder onto the wooden beam of the kitchen and crossed his arms with the sheathed sword clamped between an elbow, letting his eye trail the back of the Asato who pounded her way to an old tree in the backyard. He watched as she grabbed the dried bark as if to steady herself, and permitted her a few minutes of calming breaths before starting again. "Oi, silly gi-"

"I finally got to meet my mother."

He blinked lazily, but felt a sense of foreboding at the sudden severe mood.

"I finally got to meet my mother after so long..." His brow sub-consciously furrowed at the obvious cracks in her voice. "So why am I not happy?"

A sudden dependence on the plant for support impeded upon her, and her side fell onto its rough trunk before sliding downwards to rest on it, knees up and legs tucked in. Conversely, his shoulder left the smoothened beam and he slowly walked forwards, eye noticing her trembling back and narrowing with every step.

"I've waited every single day, prayed for their health and safety every night, wished for their company every event and thought about them every minute. And finally after fourteen years, I get to see my mother only for her to be half-dead, and no clue of my father's whereabouts. This wasn't how I wanted to meet them after all these years!" The bulk of words was littered with whimpers and gasps.

The human confirmed it even without seeing her face; she was crying.

For the first time throughout his interaction with the alien girl, he said nothing not because he did not feel like it but because he was truly at a loss for words. The suffocating pain of worry over loved ones, the tears of anguish; he was so familiar with these in his course of profession to the point of antipathy... So why did he feel this tiny urge to at least stop her tears?

She was practically sobbing by now, furiously swiping at her face in attempt to dry it but to no avail. "I had wanted them to s-surprise me at the d-door on an unsuspecting day, t-tease me about my growth, ask about my life and apologise for n-not being i-in it, a-and then we will spend the e-entire day and night just t-talking with _halmeoni_ too, forgetting about meals and sleep and just catching up. A-and then maybe the following week I will i-introduce a m-man who I've been seeing and trust to them, for _appa_ to scowl selfishly and_ eomma_ to smile."

Takasugi never needed nor felt the need to console a crying person, let alone a girl. His Kiheitai was practically alien to emotional hurt, and even if they were, he was sure to discharge anybody weak enough to show it. Matako may shed occasional tears now and then, but only over farcial and trivial matters. For an unprecedented time the cold and disassociating Joi felt minutely helpless, made more incredulous over an Amanto girl of all things. Was it because he was not used to seeing such an outright display of vulnerability from her?

She managed to level her speech and condition after a loud sniff. "But that didn't happen. _Eomma_ just spent the week lying on the mattress and eating porridge and not saying anything. And it was only just that she was about to tell me something about _appa_ until you came in," -no wonder she was so upset- "and now the only hint I have is that he may be in danger, or even worse... d-dead."

The final word caused her to break out in tears and snot all over again, and Takasugi stiffened. Was it because he felt annoyed by her wailings and unsightly appearance? Or was it because he felt annoyed by his helpless lack of action? Whatever the reason was, her cries had grown to an extent which he could not neglect anymore.

Suseri clutched and fisted the fabric on her chest, wishing to tear out the twisting, wrenching agony in her heart, the true extent of its torture made clear only after releasing all her grievances she had bottled in the past week. Now that her mother is recovering, her concern is entirely focused on her father. Is he safe? Is he hurt? Is he still... alive? Her mind uncontrollably played a gruesome film which saw her father in all sorts of violent predicaments, from being beheaded by the emperor, to being beaten by fellow servants, to being tortured for information after a wrong accusation.

_Stop._ It played indefinitely. _Stop, please._ She slammed her lids together in hopes of seeing just darkness. _Stop...!_ Her mind would not cease no matter how much her heart willed it to. _Sto-_

She felt a sudden prod at her left cheek, something cool and hard slowly sliding across the wet skin, cutting the water lines and smudging the liquid. With sore, red mismatched eyes, the girl lifted her head to see an expressionless, one-eyed purple-haired man holding his sword by the scabbard to her. It was only then she realised that it was the tip of its hilt that wiped her tears.

"Don't cry." He said flatly. "You look ugly."

Her eyelashes fluttered in a succesion of blinks, her mind was a blank slate, and her heart numb, all at his sudden, unexpectedly odd gesture. The human withdrew the katana and tucked in between his arms which he folded, eye maintaing contact with the girl's. She gave one final sniff before turning away to wipe her tears, and in the process, laughed. She laughed softly at the truth in his words about her appearance, laughed at her melodrama, and laughed at the ironic comfort of the void in her thoughts and feelings.

But most of all, Suseri laughed at the unbelievable fact that she was comforted and put to ease by four mere, unflattering words from a person she has known barely over a month.

Her sudden switch from bawling to cracking up, though giving him mood whiplash, also incited a soft smirk on his lips. With her composure finally returning and the persistent, nagging feeling in his chest gone, he wordlessly padded to a waist-high branch on the other side of the tree to rest his body on it.

His head faced upwards to the endless blue, and he said lightly, "I believe somebody owes me an apology."

Oh. The girl had temporarily forgotten about her previous misconduct, and right now, was feeling very embarrassed and awkward over it, especially after her moment of being a sobbing mess. She stood up and walked towards the kitchen, hoping that the movement will relieve her of the emotions.

"So?" His expectant voice halted her steps.

Suseri knotted fingers and bit her lip. Finally steeling herself and taking a deep breath, she swivelled around and ducked her head down, hands conjoined at her chest. She muttered, "I'm so sorry for being so rude just now, Eathling-_ssi_."

The one receiving her apology searched the sky disinterestedly, back leaned against a tree trunk with a knee propped up. "What did you say?"

"I-I'm sorry."

"What?"

"I'm sorry." Repetition permitted more confidence, -and mild annoyance-, to increase her volume.

A moment of silence, then... "What, I can't hear you."

"I said I'm sorry, okay!" Suseri almost shrieked, and her facial expression loosened at the sound of chuckles coming from the man whose head was still inclined. Heat rushing to her cheeks, she balled her fists at her sides. "_Ya,_ what are you laughing at!"

"Accepted." His head turned diagonally in a lazy manner to face her, a soft smirk, -almost a smile if she dared to think-, on his lips. '_He's a goodlooking man'_. Uncontrollably, the words of her mother and friends flashed through her mind, and she spun around to hide the heat on her cheeks.

Almost jokingly, "I'll forgive you since you looked so pathetic just now."

She peered through the corner of her eyes, and the sight of the unchanging, serene smirk of a smile inviting one of her own as her lips stretched upwards. She let out a good-natured "hmph" and continued her way towards the kitchen, where she noticed a finished tray perched atop a ledge.

_Aissi...! This means that halmeoni or eomma heard and saw everything... _Her newly resurfaced bashfulness however, did not stay for long as she lifted the lid of the bowl up to see a small note inside.

_Meet me at the abandoned hut before the mountain trail alone at midnight. -Eomma_

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: OMG DRAMAMAMAMA! But I guess it's high time I concretely advance the romance between the two after 89 chapters. As with every upload, I hope that Takasugi is still very much in character. And about the plot, things will get pretty serious soon. Eomma didn't appear all of a sudden for nothing! ^^**

**And a big thank you to Ms Anna Banana and Adrian for the reviews, and all those who have read, followed and favourited. :)**

**I'm really tired after school so A/N will be short... Goodnight(afternoon/evening) my lovelies! u.u**


	11. The Human Heart Comes to Realise

A purple head glided through the throng of market-goers, idly taking in the bustling activities (mainly bargaining from the adults and a game of catch from the kids), various alien vegetables and meat that shined in all sorts of colours under the sun, and of course, the near endless greetings that were politely sent his way.

"Good morning, Earthling_-ssi_!"

"Ah, Earthling_-ssi_, morning!"

"Morn' to ya, savior! How abou' some meat? Freshly slaughter'd!"

"I'll charge you these fruits at half-price, okay?"

Takasugi had actually been accustomed to such courtesy even before saving this swinehole. Musingly, he drew links between this marketplace and his Kiheitai ship; the greetings in the latter were not so informal, and it definitely did not stink of mud and meat (although blood was another issue...), but what the spacecraft missed out the most was the genial, warm atmosphere that this dingy village radiated. Something he could not say that he disliked.

His zori stopped at the heart of the plaza, shuffling as he twisted his body around with a searching eye; the aloof Japanese certainly did not venture out into anything crowded (aside from a festival) just to receive greetings. He had woken up to an abnormally empty hut and table in the morning, with no sign of blonde hair anywhere. The pang in his stomach drove him to her house, but he was tersely and coldly told by a black-haired woman that "she isn't home" and for him to "please leave". Inwardly swearing to drench his katana in her blood, he did as he was told and soon found himself at the center of the village, his mood dampened to dangerous levels. If she was not facing him due to a reason as frivolous as embarrassment from yesterday's events, he_ will_ kill her.

Even the sight of a stunning beauty did nothing to his souring scowl. Not that it would in the first place.

"Ah, Earthling-_ssi_!" Nayu smiled prettily. "A very good morning to-"

"Have you seen Suseri?"

"What?" Lashes fluttered, confused at his cold dismissal. Beside her, Ryuki blinked curiously as well. "Isn't she at your hut every morning?"

_Obviously not if I'm looking for her,_ Takasugi suppressed the growl and settled for glaring at a nearby fruits stand. Then, a blob of pale yellow some distance behind it caught his attention and he blinked to focus on the approaching girl, frown deepening with her every step. He could already imagine her pathetic attempt of a disarming, apologetic smile, offerings of whatever excuses, along with beeseeching clapsed palms. However, reality betrayed his expecations when she stopped abruptly beside him.

Then, Suseri, in all her glory of unkempt hair, sallow complexion and heavily-bagged eyes, pointed a bold finger at the contrastingly beautiful Nayu, who merely crinkled her nose in apprehension and confusion.

With a loud, confident voice, the dishevelled blonde girl made her declaration for all to hear.

"Nayu, I challenge you for the title of the King's Concubine!"

The entire plaza fell dead silent.

Every single villager stared wide-eyed at the girl, completely flummoxed, flabbergasted. Disbelieving. Did the normally demure and gentle young medic just brazenly challenged the village beauty over a title that only the latter could have? After a sustained bout of silence, Ryuki broke the tension stumblingly. "S-Suseri, what are you talking about? It must be a joke... right?"

"I've spent the entire night thinking about it." The girl in question withdrew her hand and tucked it between crossed arms, ignoring the massive wave of whispers occurring around with her eyes focused intently on her self-appointed rival. "There is no justice in choosing just you for it. If given the chance, I can be every bit as charming and beautiful as you, and I ought to deserve every right to contend your place as the King's Concubine."

Takasugi, whose eye had widened by a fraction out of surprise, withheld a chuckle, smirking darkly at the scene. _This is going to be interesting..._

On the opposing side, Nayu could only open and close her mouth repetitively in disbelief, rendered speechless by the absurdity of it all. Ryuki mirrored her inflated eyes, his brows locked and knitted.

"As such, please make your own dresses from now on, and I will make mine." Suseri started to turn, and then returned for an afterthought, "actually, you don't have to make one, since I'll be the only one going to the palace."

"Follow me, Earthling_-ssi_." She instructed lightly as she brushed past the man. Far too amused to chide her for giving him commands, he walked a few steps before turning to nod at the astonished crowd, particularly to the wide-eyed couple. "Well... I guess I found her."

The retreating duo disappeared from the staggering, buzzing crowd, leaving in their wake the biggest talk of the town.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Chapter Ten:<strong>_

**The Human Heart Comes to Realise**

* * *

><p>"So, are you really going to the palace?" He asked after the silent trip to her house, watching her mount rice onto a bowl.<p>

"Of course." She replaced the pot lid when she was done and arranged the dishes onto a tray. "Do you think I will joke about something like this? I really did spend the whole night contemplating, you know."

An olive eye idly discerned the approaching Asato, cogs in the mind behind it beginning to spin. "Why the sudden ambition?"

"I said it already, didn't I?" Suseri placed the platter before the purple-haired man inclined on a wooden bench, even helping to uncover the lids of the filled ceramic to release the fragrant fumes of its contents. "I don't think it's fair that only Nayu has the chance to go to the palace. I want to go to the palace too. I-"

"Cut the lies," came his terse interjection. "What happened?"

"You either accept that, or nothing at all." The blonde girl delivered her stance smoothly, complete with cordial close-lipped smile. "Now, please enjoy your breakfast."

"...It's already lunch." A sigh, and he idly picked up the metal chopsticks laid neatly beside his rice.

With rising insincerity, her smile leaked hints of mild annoyance. "You've become quite talkative, Earthling-_ssi."_

Considering the determination to end the topic ever so present in her tone of voice, Takasugi decided to concede to her wishes and drop the matter. For the moment, that is. Whatever information he wants, the Kiheitai leader always gets, and there was no way he would allow a simple alien girl resist that. _And anyway_, he mused as he chewed on seasoned cabbage and watched her retreat to the kitchen,_ given her personality, she will eventually tell me on her own accord in the end._

He was not ignorant enough to not notice her change in demeanour this morning. In the short span of time they had spent for the day so far, the perceptive samurai saw how her mind seemed to be preoccupied and how her heart seemed to belong somewhere else on their wordless journey from the plaza to her abode. Despite performing the same actions and executing the same style of speech, there was something off about the way her eyes looked, and something uncharacteristic about the aura she emanated. Not to mention, there were the underlying notes of desperation and conviction when she issued her challenge to Nayu. It was almost as if she had questioned the purpose of the life she had led and was anticipating her next course of greater action. It was almost as if she was starting to distance herself. Almost as if she cared for something more than her beloved village.

There was an issue she realized over the previous night, and Takasugi found himself actually wanting to determine what it was.

"SUSERI!"

An incensed voice, made scratchier by the force exerted in delivering it, screeched from inside the house and Halmeoni charged out towards her granddaughter with surprising speed, latching onto the younger girl's ear and giving it a malicious twist which caused enough pain to elicit a cry. Although the human had witnessed the scene many a-times before, it never held such anxiety and intensity as it did now, and neither did the old woman look so appalled.

_"I heard it from Ryuki, is it true that you want to be the King's Concubine?"_ She was almost begging for her denial, her flustered mental state forgetting to converse in Japanese. _"Is it true? Is it?" _

Suseri remained silent, merely closing her eyes to tolerate the pain.

_"IS IT?"_ The elder screamed, veined eyes wide in fearful disbelief as she already knew the answer. "_WHY?! WHY, YOU STUPID GIRL? WHY?"_

"Halmeoni,_ please don't ask questions,"_ the youth pleaded, fruitlessly fighting the rising lump in her throat, _"please!"_

_"HOW CAN I NOT?"_ The pain inflicted on Suseri's ear grew exponentially with that she did on her grandmother's heart. _"AFTER ALL THOSE HORRIBLE THINGS THAT I TOLD YOU ABOUT THE PALACE, ABOUT BEING A CONCUBINE, YOU STILL WANT TO GO THERE AND BE ONE? SUSERI, DO YOU KNOW WHAT KIND OF TROUBLE YOU ARE SEEKING?"_

No answering reply, just whimpers.

_"HOW COULD YOU EVEN THINK OF IT?"_ The geriatrician roared despairingly._ "WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO LEAVE THE VILLAGE, WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO ABANDON US, WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO ABANDON ME?"_

_"_Halmeoni!_ I don't want to leave the village, I don't want to abandon everybody and above all, I don't want to abandon you!"_ Suseri cried, her voice increasingly unstable, "_but-"_

"_THEN WHAT? YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND, YOU STUPID GIRL!"_ Tears, for the first time in a decade, spilled from the elder medic's eyes, unable to fathom life without her precious granddaughter, made worse when she knew about the crooked ways of the city. "_YOU ABSOLUTELY CANNOT GO TO THE PALACE! I WON'T LET YOU!"_

"Halmeoni-!"

"Eomeonim! Suseri! _Stop this unsightly behaviour!"_ A third voice and body interrupted the fray as Mai wedged herself between her mother-in-law and daughter, wrenching apart the grip the former had on the latter. She cordoned the youngest Asato from the eldest, then shot a glance of awareness towards the marginalised human spectator on the other end of the kitchen yard. _"How ugly it is for our family to bicker in front of a guest, let alone an alien at that!"_

A frown settled onto Takasugi's brow as he received a wave of hostility from the newcomer much more intense than he had previous times. Putting that aside, he was almost amused, _entertained_ by the dispute that unfolded, although he had no idea what they were saying. He loved drama and strife, even from a family as insignificant and unimportant as this, and he was glad to witness so much in a day since the morning.

However, there was an annoying tinge of guilt and reluctance in taking delight from the show.

"MAI! _Do you know what your daughter plans to do?_" Ignoring the sense of shame that she was reminded of, Halmeoni maintained her volume and heatedly addressed the middle-aged woman. "_Tell her, tell her about the kind of atrocities that happen in the Palace! TELL HER! GO ON!"_

When she was met with a remorseful aversion of eyes, realization struck her addled mind and she allowed her wrinkled hands to fall limply to her sides.

"_You knew... You are in this with her..."_ her eerily faint voice incited worried frowns from the younger females, _"I should have realised, ever since you came back... Things have been very different..."_

"Eomeonim... _It's not what you think_," the black-haired woman said unconvincingly, putting her palms to her chest, "_it's not-"_

"_Something happened to _Dan_ in the Palace, isn't it?"_ Pieces of the puzzle arranged themselves in her mind, but her heart prohibited its completion. "_What?"_

Once again, she was confronted with silence and a biting cold engulfed her entire being.

...

"Halmeoni, _you_ are the one who doesn't understand." Suseri said in the universal language after a minute heavy with thought, as if she wanted the purple-haired man to listen too. "I absolutely must go to the Palace."

The elderly woman frowned and slackened her jaw as a different form of fear crept up within her, imposed by the cold conviction drenching the words of her granddaughter. She subconsciously took a step back as the blonde girl took one forwards, and the latter faced her with an expression so apologetic and so wrought with anguish that it override her own grievances.

"But I promise that you will come to understand everything," the girl's lips forced a pained, hopeful smile, "when I return."

* * *

><p><em>Suseri was unable, -no, unwilling to believe what she had just heard.<em>

_"Eomma, what are you saying?" She gave a mirthless laugh, waiting for her mother to spring an uncharacteristic "punk'd!" on her. "There's no way that can be true!"_

_The pristine light of the moon seeped through the gaps and cracks of the old abandoned hut, dissipating shadows but not the darkness that was brought forth with the confessions made by the crying, kneeling dark-haired woman. With unrestrained waterfalls flooding her tear ducts, the elder female willingly broke proprieties of familial relations by slamming her forehead onto the wooden ground in front of her daughter's legs._

_"Suseri! I'm a failure of a wife, a failure of a mother!" Undiluted sorrow and grief wrecked her every word and muscle. "But there isn't anybody else I can turn to for help! There isn't anybody else I can trust anymore! You're the only person whom I know can do it! You're the only person left, so please, I beg you...! P-Please go to the Palace and save your father!"_

_The desperation in her voice, the unspoken message behind her plea, the mere knowledge of the expected consequences in carrying out her request; it was made agonisingly, excruciating clear to Suseri. She could not even cry, she could not even tell her to get up. She could do nothing but stare blankly in shock at the crouching woman before her._

_"I'm so, so, so sorry, Suseri! I truly have failed as a mother," Mai continued to wail and beg, chest and head still pressed onto the rough floor and eyes still spouting tears, "I know what it means to go to the Palace, I know what it means to get involved into its politics, I know the _fates_ of those who fall out of its favour... I would never wish for you to ever experience that Hell of a place, but there is no other way that Dan could possibly be saved! Please forgive me for asking this of you, my beloved, precious daughter! Please understand where I am coming from!"_

_Only sobs and whimpers filled the empty room as Suseri processed all that she had heard, her mind and heart dangerously close to reaching a breakdown._

_"Y-Your beloved daughter..." She began almost ethereally, floatingly. "You would send your beloved, precious daughter to an almost certain death to carry out an almost certain failure of a mission to rescue your husband."_

_Her silent response spoke a thousand words._

_She should have known it. She should have known it from whatever vague memories she had when they were once an undivided family. From the asymmetrical quantity and quality of food, care and affection Mai had served and shown towards the man and the girl, Suseri should have known that no matter how much she loved her daughter, the dark-haired woman would never love her as much, as equally as she did her husband. Or rather, she should not have chosen to remain blind to that truth. She has always thought of it as acceptable (despite an ache of jealousy), since she guessed that there were different forms of love and her mother did love her nonetheless after all, but for the woman to openly admit to ranking her husband's life over her daughter's, it dealt a blow on an entirely different level. It was disgusting to fathom, it was torturous to realise, but the maxim that Mai banked her beseech on will not change._

_ She could always have another daughter, but she could never have the same husband._

_Was this how one made amends for years of absence?_

_Was she so _dispensable _that her mother would not think twice about sacrificing her own daughter to save her man despite fully knowing the possibility of losing both at once__?_

_Was that what her father had wanted as well?_

_But even so, even through the tormenting rejection that crumbled her will to live, even through the desire to hate her mother for the confession she'd made, Suseri understood her reasons and shared her unlimited love for the man. It was this love and sense of piety that forced her to make her possibly fatal decision._

_"I sympathise, _Mai-ssi_."_

_An address more damaging than frostbite. The older Asato dared to lift her head, and deliberately raised her mismatched, anguished eyes to meet the blonde's with trepidation and shame._

_The girl closed her lids, succumbing to and leaving everything into Fate's hands._

_"I will need more information. I _am_ going to _the Palace_, after all."_

_And she was not even started on the devastating worry she had for her father._

* * *

><p><em>"<em>Earthling-_ssi_, are you free?"

A blonde head peeked into the quiet, uneventful hut, blinking as an idle gaze was sent her way. The one-eyed man sat listlessly atop the window sill of the room, right hand holding a smoking pipe and body held by a posture that could not be any lazier. Seeing that she has interrupted nothing aside from his admiration of the outside greenery, she smiled and answered for him. "Of course you are."

"Why," Takasugi returned to watching a squirrel scuttle up a tree and missed the girl stepping up to his side, "do you have something interesting enough to make me not free?"

"Hmm, yes, I suppose," she placed a finger to her chin in mock consideration, "well, by my standards it is interesting in-"

"Then I'll pass."

Unfettered and not discouraged by his blunt refusal, her smile grew into a grin and she started for the door. "Then I guess I'll have to ask Seoki to entertain you."

Two soft thumps on the hollow ground was all she needed to hear.

Still grinning, she turned to the standing man and took childish triumph in seeing his irritated, bested expression. Then, holding up three fingers, she laid out her requisitions. "Okay, I'll need you to promise me on several things, you got that?"

The Kiheitai leader deepened his scowl. Who was she to instruct him around? Even the toughest of space thugs did not dare to coerce him so one-sidedly when signing illegal deals and trades. He was two words away from telling her to get lost when an image of incessant giggling and adolescent fawning conjured itself in his mind and persuaded him to choose the lesser of two evils, and thus signalled his highly reluctant consent through a low grunt.

"Firstly, you must not complain about the long hike."

...It sounded troublesome already.

"Secondly, you must not tell anybody that I brought you to where I will be bringing you."

...He had a good mind to sit back do- Wait, what?

"Thirdly, and most importantly, you must _absolutely_ promise me not to touch anything at all. Not even a light tap."

His eye slit open in curiosity, focusing on a determined girl still brandishing her fingers at him. Now, her final two requests were interesting, indeed. She had always been so obedient to her grandmother that she alerted her of her whereabouts wherever and whenever she travelled, even if she was merely drawing water from the well. A bemused smirk snaked up his lips and he exhaled a puff of smoke into her face.

"I concede."

"No." Much to his veiled chagrin, the brazen girl was not appeased. Fanning the fumes away with another hand, her outstretched three fingers folded in to extend her last, which she offered to the apprehensive human. "You promise."

"Oi, oi," he drawled with a slight frown and unhesitatingly used what he knew was a touchy subject against her. "How can a girl who was so utterly, embarrassingly reprimanded by her elders in front of a guest still possess the cheek to demand a promise from said guest?"

Her unflinchingly expectant stare proved her careless attitude towards the disgraceful nature of yesterday's events.

"Shameless," he spat.

Still that aggravating gaze.

The purple-haired samurai would have flung the ashes in his pipe into her eyes if he didn't have to worry about her accidentally cutting the wrong sutures on his chest due to her loss of sight. Or maybe '_accidentally_', given her gall. Instead, he settled for a very peeved growl and tapped the insulated part of his kiseru onto the crook of her pinkie.

Finally satisfied, she gave one last infuriatingly triumphant smile before setting off for her destination with sprightly steps and a sighing human in tow.

* * *

><p>Takasugi almost could not believe his eyes. Or eye, for that matter.<p>

An arduous hike through unclearly defined forest trails, rocky mountain steps, slippery hills and half a day later, they finally found themselves gazing up (the girl in awe and him in disinterest) at an unassuming, unimpressive entrance of a cave which housed... nothing. Or nothing he could see, anyway. Deliberately turning to his side, he nailed a glare so demandingly pressurizing that it would intimidate even a non-sentient abomination into spouting incomprehensively fearful apologies. Unfortunately, being just a simple, Amanto girl, she merely withered under his intense stare and laughed uncomfortably. "N-No, this isn't what I wanted to show you! I gets better when we're inside, I promise."

He asked if it was even safe to enter, and she dismissed his perfunctory unease with a flick of a wrist and confident steps into the ominous-looking cave, armed only with a small lamp and scarce infiltrated sunlight to illuminate their way.

_More walking..._ The samurai cursed vehemently in his mind as he trekked through the moist, slicked rocks of the cavern ground, a little worried for the disintegrating stress it put on his pair of zori, which held up surprisingly well even across the rough terrain he had covered. Meanwhile, Suseri too had some difficulty in manoeuvring the disorientating crooks in the barely-there path, even requiring the sturdy shoulder of an extremely miffed Japanese when she accidentally slipped on a particularly wet and smooth stone. Undaunted, she persevered and finally caught sight of a purple glow after what seemed like half an hour.

She wedged herself through a narrow gap, noting with amusement that her companion was less deft than her in doing so given his bigger size, and turned to marvel and appreciate the utter beauty that nature had to offer.

Violet crystals adorned the entire chamber with its radiant sparkle and lighted the shadows with its piercingly neon, luminous glow. Quite astonished by the sight, Takasugi took a few distracted steps forwards, likening the experience to standing within a three-dimensional hologram of the Milky Way, his senses slightly thrown off-balance by the overwhelmingly dizzying lights that surrounded him. He could not care less about the immense bulk of monetary worth the crystals possessed, being jaded with superficial gains through life; he was more interested in another matter. When marauding with his Kiheitai or simply checking loot from associates, he had stepped into rooms or even chambers full of gold and other treasures, but the glory of those artificial gems dimmed in comparison to these natural ones, their lustre stained by the underhand methods they were attained by. On the other hand, the purple diamonds before him right now were pure in every aspect from their composition to formation. Including their proud, smiling presenter.

So pure, so clean, so _unadulterated_. Takasugi could not suppress his lust to blot their shine with his touch.

"_Ya!_ What did I say about touching anything?!"

His outstretched hand paused mid-way as he regarded the approaching girl, highly irritated by her interruption. Suseri grabbed the offending appendage and pushed it to the human's chest where she held it, shooting a reproachful look up into this frowning face, mentally lamenting that he had no idea of what she risked by bringing him here.

"This cave is a treasure that my village will never reveal to anybody," she informed gravely while casting a sweeping glance around, "you should know why."

_Of course_, he thought understandingly, empathetically. It truly was a treasure worth keeping a secret to the grave.

"As you can see, we have left it pretty much untouched," he felt her hand leaving his as she padded to a perfect column of glittering violet ice, "because we see no need and have no desire in exploiting Mother Nature's priceless gift just so we can live a luxurious life. We can't say the same for other people, though."

With some effort, he slinked his arms into his robes, thus assuring her of his adherence to his promise. "Why me?"

"Because I trust you," came her simple, genuine reply, "and I want to show you the wonders of Nature. To boast a little, if you will."

_Trust me...?_ He mused in context of the word, a demented smile tugging at his lips. It had been so, _so _long since he heard somebody saying those two words sincerely that he almost wondered if he was born with any ounce of trustworthiness in his soul to begin with. Every dealing, every contract, every promise he dealt and made, he constructed them with a catch, a loophole he could take advantage of. Even if he didn't, betrayal and backstabbing was all that he needed to do. Takasugi Shinsuke definitely wasn't internationally and universally renowned as one of the most notoriously treacherous entities for nothing. It was a reputation built on shed blood and manipulated bonds. The only trust he was capable of giving was to lead his subordinates to a world of destruction.

_How blissful it must be to be so unaware, so ignorant_, he stepped towards her crouched figure, burning an increasingly deranged smile into her back**.**

_So_ blind.

He was almost jealous of her innocence. Almost.

It was when he reached a feet within her shuffling body that he saw what she was doing, and the sight spawned deep ire within him.

"I thought you said not to touch anything?" He reiterated scathingly as she felt around a crystalline solid the size of a football, even examining its quality with an ancient-looking monocle perched on her blue right eye. Satisfied with its conditions and shape, she proceeded to further antagonize his spite by carefully prying the chunk of mineral off the ground and holding it up high, expressing her disgruntlement for the crack lines she inflicted with a tut.

_Oh well, it would have to do._ The sculptor would be able to work his way around its flaws. She took out a bulky box from her cloth-bag and tenderly placed the crystal into its cushioned inside. Once it was snugly and securely strapped to her back, she turned around to finally answer the waiting human. "That rule was for you, not me."

_This girl...!_ Takasugi scowled so acidulously that it dimmed the radiance of his breath-taking surroundings. "No desire to exploit? Say that to me one more time."

"I'm not exploiting! I'm not going to sell this off or anything," she whipped around with a defensive pout, explaining, "the only times when we will come up to this cave are during the years when the King's Concubine will be sent off. Even the finest and most beautiful of silk will be plain if there aren't jewellery to compliment them. This is our closest hope to having gems in and on our hair and body."

"Forget it," the purple-haired man deadpanned bluntly with crossed arms, still upset about her moment of hypocrisy (not that_ he_ was one to talk). "Even the most radiant of gold won't help your dull hair."

"Hmph," she stuck her tongue out immaturely, "wait and see."

It was not until Suseri scooted over to a young, budding crystal that Takasugi realised his provocation was appeased by their short conversation. Now that he thought about it, compared to his interaction with the Kiheitai and the other three idiots from the Joui war, he was much easier to satisfy during his time in the village. Although the villagers couldn't maintain his good mood as well as Bansai (the most agreeable follower who got along with him best) and Matako (his most loyal henchwoman whose sole desire in life is to please him) did, they were able to pacify his bouts of unhappiness better than anybody else did. Especially that silly medic girl. He simply owed it to the tranquil environment and paid no attention to it.

"Earthling_-ssi_, come look at this."

He blinked down disinterestedly, padding over to her position just for the want of moving muscles, and saw a pale, scrawny crystal in her gaze.

"How interesting."

He saw her eyebrow twitch at his drawl. "Tsk."

"Do you know," Suseri waited for a few moments before starting again, restraining a sigh of relief when the man made no sarcastic remarks this time, "that people are just like crystals?"

Takasugi remained silent, accepting the slight curiosity he had in her random statement.

"Only after enduring long months, years, even decades under the harshest temperatures and unbearable pressure do they grow," the blonde girl mused as she gently traced a finger over the irregular spikes of the young mineral, "and it will take even longer and more brutal conditions for them to bloom into strong, beautiful bodies. Of course, additional cutting and shaping will be required to refine them into perfect forms for everybody else to admire."

She straightened her legs and back, mismatched eyes reflected off the little polygons of the little crystal.

"Just like people, every single crystal is different in their formations, contributed by the kind of conditions that they were under during their growth. Utterly unique, differently beautiful with their own polish. Collectively, the differing types of course possess their own high calibres of radiance. From the many tales and stories I've heard," she turned to regard the listening man beside, looking up into his eye meaningfully, "the humans have the brightest shine of all."

_Not blind,_ he corrected himself inwardly and Takasugi held her gaze, an inexplicable, unexplainable excitement rising in his chest,_ not blind at all._

_But still ignorant._

"Your assessment does hold truth, I'll give you that," he began, a dangerous tone in his voice raising alarms in Suseri's head, "but you missed out on one thing..."

Without warning, he lifted a leg and crushed the growing mineral in a swift, brutal stamp of his foot. He took sick pleasure in seeing the affronted shock in her wide eyes, although she said nothing.

"Just like crystals, people are also ever so fragile." He slowly made his way towards the only opening of the chamber, completely guiltless and unrepentant for his action. "With sufficient force, even the hardest will break, crack, fracture and disintegrate. What use is that beauty you speak of if it will eventually end up being destroyed?"

The girl remained silent, accepting the logic in his harsh statement although she did not stand by it.

"In fact, the more beautiful it is," he halted to turn behind, the maniacal grin he had partially hidden by the darkness he was headed, "the more I would like to crush it."

Suseri could not deny being taken aback by the viciousness and malice in his words, but it did not shock her enough into being frightened, considering that she was already familiarised with the morbid side of the enigma she had brought to her village, and it seemed to pose no threat to her or her people so far. Despite her confidence that he would not harm her, -not yet, at least-, she still kept many secret doubts and insecurities about his will and perseverance to stay this docile, as she had already realised that he was not any ordinary being. However, they did not stop her from forming the unexpectedly deep attachment she had towards him, and neither did they deter the unexplainable trust she had in him.

From day one she had already taken chances, and she decided that she would continue doing so.

"Earthling_-ssi_."

Takasugi heard her call out, the sickly sweet tone eliciting a mild chill on the back of his neck. He casually turned backwards to face her twitching smile.

"...You'll pay for breaking the promise."

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: Omg now this is quite a loaded chapter to write... I hope that my attempt at angst isn't too cheesy... If it is, I hope that the short fluff made up for it... If the fluff is cheesy too, I hope that the rest of the chapter will make up for it... If everything was cheesy, um, here are some nachos? ^^;<strong>

**Nah just kidding. Actually, no, seriously. I really need your feedback and opinions on my writing! I have big plans for this story heading towards the drama side, so I really want to be able to pull if off. Out of all my works, The Human Heart is my favourite (BIASED ME!) and so I really wish to be able to write it to the best I can or even more!**

**I made Takasugi a lil psycho here... Is he still in character, I hope?**

**And I've probably brought up a few issues here which I will expand on in later chapters (did my attempt at being mysterious work?)! I hope I managed to capture the appropriate emotions! **

**If not, please do give me constructive notes on how to improve it! (No flames though)!**

**A HUUUUUGE thank you to Avalon, Ms. Anna Banana, franks-not-dead and luvJesusinHeavn for the reviews! I always smile like :) when I read them! :) :) :) And of course, thank you to those who favourited, followed and read!**

**I can't say for sure when the next chapt will be up... BUT I hope it will be soon! Alright, seeyaz~**

**P/S: I apparently love changing the summary for this fic and I won't stop changing it until I find one catchy enough. OTL *shot in the head***

**P/P/S: The new Gintama arc with the Joui Reunion has changed so many perceptions of Takasugi... A part of me hopes that it is true after all and another doesn't... LOL**


	12. The Human Heart Comes to Learn

"Let me tell you the story behind your name."

The blonde girl turned to face the man behind curiously, an interested smile on her lips. "Story? I didn't know you like to talk. What's this all of a sudden?"

Suseri, knowing that she wouldn't have much time left to spend with her guest, suggested that they go out for a stroll after she was done with his evening check-up. Initially hesitant as he simply wanted to smoke his night away in the comfort of his hut (which wasn't exactly comfortable to begin with), the purple-haired samurai agreed when he caught sight of the perfect sphere that illuminated the dark sky with its quiet glory, the resemblance it bore with its Earthen counterpart striking a chord of sentimental fondness in his human heart. Thus, the pair found themselves dallying at the hill which he favoured for its magnificent view of the mountain range in the distance, appreciating the celestial beauty that it magnanimously offered.

"The moon tonight reminded me of some folktales I used to hear about," Takasugi drawled lazily, sipping the tip of his kiseru as he laid listlessly upon a low tree branch. "I just remembered that you share the same name with a character in one of them."

Blinking and calmly anticipating, she allowed her attention to be consumed by the purple-haired human whose lone eye possessed abstruseness that rivalled the lone orb in the sky it was gazing at, her heart inexplicably beating faster than usual.

"Suseri-hime was the daughter of Susano'o, God of the Sea and Storms and ruler of Yomi, the Land of the Dead." His baritone voice resounded through the undisturbed air, so darkly beguiling it commanded silence from even the creatures of the night. "A god named Okuninushi had ventured into the Underworld to seek asylum from his brothers, and over there he met Suseri-hime, with whom he fell in love.

Susano'o, wishing to test him, first sent him to sleep in a room full of poisonous snakes. Worried, Suseri-hime gave him her scarf, and told him to wave it three times should he come to harm. Okuninushi followed her instructions and got through the night unscathed. The following day, the God sent him to sleep in another room, this time filled with poisonous centipedes and wasps. Similarly, he tided over with the protection of the princess' scarf.

Next, Susano'o brought Okuninushi to a wide field to retrieve an arrow he had shot. In the midst of his search, the Storm God set the land on fire, leaving the helpless god stranded in the middle of the field at the mercy of engulfing flames. Just as he was about to give up, a mouse appeared and brought him to the safety of its home, in addition to bringing him the arrow he had to return."

Vision unchanging, he paused briefly for her to process.

"Once they were back in the Underworld, Susano'o told Okuninushi to pick lice out of his hair, which he complied. As he was combing through the God's hair, he found out that it were not lice, but poisonous centipedes. Suseri-hime once again rendered her help by bringing him the berries of a Muku tree and red clay, instructing her lover to chew and spit them out to give the illusion of catching and chewing the centipedes for her father. Fooled, Susano'o gave his approval and fell asleep.

The moment the Storm God closed his eyes, Okuninushi exclaimed to the princess, "Now, we shall run off together!" and proceeded to tie Susano'o's hair to the rafters of his palace. He pilfered the Susano'o's sword, bow and arrows, and koto, fleeing with Suseri-hime on his back. In his escape, the koto struck a tree and woke Susano'o up, and in his pursuit of the elopers, collapsed his own Palace. As they were nearing the borders of Yomi, Susano'o, knowing that he will never catch up, shouted for Okuninushi to use his sword, bow and arrows to expel brothers and then build another palace at the foot of a mountain that would reach the heavens for himself and his daughter. With that, Okuninushi followed through and became the ruler of Izumo with Suseri-hime as his wife."

The tuned chirpings and hoots of crickets and owls resumed shortly after the end of his tale, assuming the only sounds of the night as Takasugi waited for her response. It did not come till a few minutes later.

"To give up family for love..." she spoke serenely, almost admiringly, "I wonder if I would be able to do that."

_Trust her to mention that first after all I have said,_ he brought his eye down from the celestial body to meet her earthly face, the softest of smirks on his lips. "I wonder, indeed..."

"Thank you, Earthling-_ssi_," Suseri tendered a smile in return, "that was a very nice story to hear. Your culture certainly is fascinating."

"Did the old hag name you after it?" Takasugi watched as she stood up and dusted her plain robes, which he noticed were frayed at the hems. He added mockingly, "although you are so far from being a princess."

"No..." The ethereal moon illuminated her skin as she gazed upon its beauty, the soft night breeze brushing at strands of her fair hair.

"She just thought that it sounded pretty."

* * *

><p><em><strong>Chapter Eleven:<strong>_

**The Human Heart Comes to Learn**

* * *

><p>He noticed that he saw her less and less.<p>

A small mill constructed out of wood and stucco came into view as Takasugi sauntered down a sandy trail, the crisp, earthy scent from nearby forage giving his lungs a refreshing change of air from the usual smoke of his tobacco.

According to the ever-enthusiastic Seoki who happily relayed the information on his own talkative free will (and _not_ because he was asked), the recent absence of the silly blonde girl can be blamed on her incredibly rushed preparation for her ascension as the King's Concubine of the village, of whom will be fetched by a palace officer in two weeks time. So occupied she was since her audacious declaration that he only saw her for brief periods on some nights and mornings, when she would come to his hut to give her daily inspections of his physical condition. But even so, he would either be asleep or she would skip giving check-ups altogether. He mentally juxtaposed their lack of meetings to that during the start of his visit to the hamlet, when she was so busy with chores that their introduction only occurred a few days after his induction. _Just as well_, he thought, since his injuries were healing up very nicely and control over his arm was improving progressively; sparse their final meetings shall also be as he neared the end of his stay in this impoverished town.

His olive eye focused on the various machinery (which were really just wooden, man-operated tools) and textiles exposed in the courtyard of the sweatshop, sheltered only by an expansive stretch of canvas draped across stilts. Catching sight of the sole person in the compound, he closed the distance.

Her abated appearances were not the only change in the past week. Hamada-nari had taken the liberty to personally request that she drop her brazen challenge, as Nayu was the only girl fit to fulfil the role. Takasugi was one of the many spectators who witnessed the young medic reject the village head's appeal with definite adamancy, announcing that she _will_ go to the palace against all odds. Even in a village as empathetic as this, she had then been treated with subtle, polite discrimination, receiving difficult smiles and communications that were noticeably forced from the other villagers. There was a drastic change within her own household as well; the once warm, unpretentious interactions were reduced to cold, perfunctory conversations. Suseri rarely joined in for dinner and Mai would rather eat alone than share the table with a foreigner, thus rendering mealtimes quiet affairs between him and the stoic front of Halmeoni.

_Maybe it is a good thing for her to disappear after all_, Takasugi surmised as he leaned against a wooden beam, silently observing the blonde girl slide shuttles and spin threads. The awakening of this distant side to her earned the Kiheitai leader's intrigue, which he deduced from his increasing awareness of her decreasing presence; days in which he saw no sign of wheat-coloured hair were wretchedly more boring than usual and he often found himself thinking back to the days when she would so irritatingly call him out for every reason possible. He continued to remain unnoticed as he watched her efficient, gentle hands glide across the loom.

The human felt his lips quirk up in a smirk when she briefly blinked up at him with a knowing smile, and then resumed her work uninterrupted without a word, as though she was conscious that he had been standing there all the while.

In the short moment when olive met blue and red, he never imagined those eyes to look so enticing.

* * *

><p>She made sure that the coast was clear before surreptitiously sliding an inked paper out from the pages of her twine-bounded book.<p>

Glancing around cautiously with every stroke of her brush, Nayu sported a disposition as suspicious as a criminal, her long-lashed brown and green optics searching the courtyard behind the school for any sign of her tutor or mother and her thumping heart jumping at every rustle of a leaf. Only when ten minutes of complete solitude passed did she allow her delicate shoulders to sink down in ease and continue her writing undisturbed. Unfortunately...

"Nayu."

An unpleasant yelp escaped and she dropped her brush, accidentally spotting her literature texts with black ink. However, they did not matter as long as her letters were safe from ruin, and she snatched them up to hold it behind her back protectively when she turned to face the intruder.

"Y-You!" She blinked as she registered the familiar medic. "What are you doing here! _Eomma_ told me not to associate myself with you anymore!"

"I'm sure she told you to concentrate when studying as well," Suseri stepped forwards, eyeing the poorly concealed yellow films with a smile, "not like you actually listen."

"Hmph, even if she didn't, I wouldn't want to talk to you." Despite her words, the raven-haired beauty relaxed, much happier to see the blonde than her own parent or teacher. "So, what are you doing here?"

"So cold," the amused smile stretched, "is it wrong for me to pay my rival a visit?"

"It is wrong for you to even consider yourself a rival." Nayu crossed her arms and stated ruthlessly, nailing a glare onto the girl who was unabashedly stifling through the various books littered upon the stone table. "You're too old!"

"I'm only two years older than you, little brat," the blonde Asato could not help let out an irritated growl, greatly offended.

"Exactly! That's way past what the King is searching for. Age aside, you are lacking in so many other areas!" The village belle huffed, pointing a rude finger at the other. "You're pretty, I admit, but I am much more so. Anybody can sing, but you can neither dance nor play an instrument. Your mastery of our language is commendable and you can speak the universal Japanese fluently, but you cannot read nor write it, and you aren't polished at all in calligraphy! You possess vast general knowledge of the world, but you know nothing about literature or history that the palace appreciates. Even the girls in school are more eligible to be a King's Concubine than you! How can you even think of going to the city with your standards like that?!"

Suseri blinked in mild surprise, not at the reality in her harsh words, but at the underlying tones of concern over contempt in them. She regarded the beautiful face frowning in anxiety rather than disdain, then said as though it was the most rational answer to the problem, "that's why you will have to teach me the ways."

"T-Teach you the ways? Have you gone_ mad_?" The raven-haired Asato gaped, astounded at the illogical request. "Why would a king teach his general how to usurp the throne? Why would _I_ threaten_ my_ holding of the one role which every villager dreams of having by teaching_ you_ how to claim it?"

"Because you don't want it!"

Nayu opened her mouth to rebuke the impudent statement, but found no reason to support her non-existent argument.

"You don't want to leave the village, Nayu." Suseri continued, confronting shocked eyes with her own assertive ones. "You don't want to leave your family, you don't want to leave Ryuki, you don't want to leave the life you have been living, even if it had been hard. You don't want to be the King's Concubine at all. Those letters to everybody in your hand are proof of that."

She pointed to the clump of papers, which was in the jeopardy of being torn apart under the pressure it was clamped in.

"You think I am blind to your dilemma? You think I am blind to your hurt? You think I am blind to your family's and _oppa's_ hurt?" The blonde girl gritted, an aching grip wringing her own heart as well. "King's Concubines rarely return after being sent off. How many times have we seen the previous concubines curse their own beauty for their fate?"

"Then..." Nayu finally found her voice, no matter how feeble it was. "You're saying that you want to leave the village? Why?"

They maintained their respective stares before Suseri surrendered by closing her eyes. "I don't want to leave... I _have_ to leave."

"Ever since your mother came back..." The black-haired female desired so much to pursue, but the brief flash of torture in her companion's face inhibited her inquisition.

"That's why, Nayu," the blonde started after a few moments of silence, beseeching the other girl with sincere, pleading eyes. "Please give it up to me."

...

"It is impossible..." the answer informed hopelessly, inwardly dejected by the slipping of an opportunity to escape. "It is impossible for you to learn everything in two weeks."

"I don't have to learn everything," the medic countered determinedly, grabbing hold of her hands, "Fear not the one who practises a thousand kicks, but the one who practises a kick a thousand times! I'll only have to master the bare minimum. Just one dance, one song! One novel, one dynasty. Only the minimum to scrape through. Please, Nayu. _Please_."

The village belle considered the desperation so openly expressed by the blonde girl, her eyes blinking in shock, confusion, and amazement at her conviction. Coming to terms with her own desire to abandon her fate, she gave a helpless sigh.

Suseri drew the vanished smile back on her mouth, gently releasing the grip she had her hands under.

Nayu had always been so easy to sway.

* * *

><p>"Yo," she heard the familiar low drawl, "it's been awhile."<p>

Suseri felt a tug at her lips, but said nothing and remained focused on moving the brush in her hand down to create a stroke as perfect as it could be. Quite satisfied, she allowed her concentration to be broken by the light shuffling of paper beside, waiting for her visitor's verdict.

Takasugi listlessly skimmed through the various words adorning the yellow films, recognising some Chinese characters which he knew both their languages shared. "What poor calligraphy."

"Tsk."

"See here," he set a piece down and indicated the error with his kiseru, "parts of the character aren't aligned. And there," he moved the tip upwards, "that stroke is larger than the other."

The girl widened her eyes and lifted her eyebrows, and he could already imagine her mental berate on her carelessness. The man then chuckled tauntingly and raised the pipe to his lips. "They say that appearances deceive, but one's writing reveals. You will be the laughing stock of the whole palace if you show such work."

"If you're so good," she brandished the brush to him, seizing the opportunity without delay, "then teach me."

A puff of smoke to the face was what she got.

"I can leave my Korean to _eomma_ and Nayu," Suseri persevered relentlessly, her eyes unblinking despite the tearing fumes, "but what I really need help on is my Japanese. I can speak it fluently on the conversation level, but everything else, I am hopeless. If I can learn directly from you, a true blue Japanese, surely I can reach a calibre acceptable enough."

"Silly girl," the man sneered, inhaling another round of the drug, "you expect to master a foreign language in just what, a week and a half? Getting confident, are we?"

"I don't need to master everything," she replied, a sense of déjà vu in this conversation, "I only need to learn a few proverbs, and the basic writing and reading skills._ Eomma_ said that speech is what the King truly and only cares about, anyway."

Takasugi studied the determination on her face, allowing its inspiration to emanate before crushing it. "Give me one good reason why I should help you."

The blonde medic looked so appalled that she almost amused him enough to concede.

"Earthling-_ssi_," she touched his bandaged chest, "I _saved_ your _life!_"

"So? How naïve to think that everybody has the same sense of virtue as you do, silly girl." The contemptuous smirk on his face could not grow any bigger and he tapped the hot metal bowl of his kiseru on her hand. "I'm feeling well enough. I can leave this cesspool right now, you know?"

"Tch!" Suseri pulled her arm back and massaged the sting, frowning in irritation. Once the pain had subsided, she raised her eyes to meet his, but the glare they held morphed into derision. "Oh, can you, now?"

The Kiheitai leader kept mum, but pierced her with the dirtiest look that darkened with every passing second.

"Is your wound really that healed? Can you move your arm as efficiently as before? Moreover, do you even know where your," again, the term eluded her, disrupting the glory of her acquisition of the upper hand, "um, vehicle is at?"

The insufferably immature tone of her taunt and smug expression reminded him so much of that idiot Gintoki that he itched to unsheathe his sword, but thought better of it and instead moved his hand to place the pipe into his mouth again, breathing in sharply as he closed his eye lest the intensity of his glare could actually harm her.

"I know how you are like, so I'll make you a deal," he could hear the smile in her voice, "all I need is one session, one session for you to teach me some proverbs I could use, and supervise my calligraphy. When that is done, I'll bring you to your vehicle thing in the mountains."

She knew that she obtained his attention, although his eye remained shut.

"And when you see it," a sudden pause and decline of mirth in her speech incited him to look up, and he saw with a frown that uncertainty was starting to form in her mismatched eyes, "you can choose whether to leave or not at that point in time."

She did not know the gravity of what she had said until her mind and heart repeated it.

Suseri swung her body around to face her back to him. She hadn't given much thought about it when she made the offer as it came out on a whim, but the utterance of her last line gradually forced her to confront a reality she had been desperately postponing and emotions that she had distracted herself away from. Her guest was a guest; his stay was temporal. In due time her life will continue without his presence, and he will be nothing more than a memory, even despite her efforts to delay it. _No, there's still some time left_, she tried to comfort herself with the knowledge that they still had a week or so together, or maybe even a day if he chose to initialise the deal now. It now depended on his answer, on his desire.

Surely he wasn't that eager to leave...?

Silence stalled for a few minutes.

"Eshajōri."

She slowly turned back at the sound of his toneless voice. A fissure within her started to form, and her lost gaze entangled in the resolution of his stare. She watched, frozen, as the purple-haired man picked up her brush, coated it in ink, and proceeded to paint four characters onto a blank sheet of paper.

"E" 会 "sha" 者 "jō" 定 "ri" 離.

Takasugi finished the last few strokes and discerned his work, acknowledging unexpected fault in the weight of his brush, the weight of the words.

The weight of his heart.

"Every meeting involves a parting," he explained in a tone that gave no emotion away. "It's a yojijukugo. A four-character lexeme in my language."

...

Her eyelids fell down along with her heart and Suseri nodded understandingly, glad that she learned something new.

* * *

><p>It was dead.<p>

It was useless.

His hands tugged at the assortment of ripped metal and torn wires without the worry of receiving a shock as his ship was now totally powerless. He cast a helpless eye onto the heap of trash, the utter complexity and disarrangement of which mirrored his own mess of emotions that he kept under wraps. Perhaps it had enough fuel to facilitate his departure from the planet during the first few weeks of its sojourn, but that fuel came to die out with its prolonged stay. What could he do now? He was never deft in sorting out issues like this. Everything, his Kiheitai could settle. A sardonic chuckle at this predicament escaped his lips, and Takasugi reached into his robes to pull out his much-needed pipe.

"You must be happy," he wryly addressed the anticipating girl behind, "that I have to stay."

"Earthling-_ssi_..."

"No matter." Curt. Taut. Low. "I'll figure something out."

The samurai brushed passed her shoulder and strolled up the trail that was dug when his space pod had dragged itself down the slight hill, studying the darkening sky above him. "How nice. I get more free lodging and food."

"Earthling-_ssi_," Suseri swivelled around, burning the fabric on his back with heated eyes. She evened her breath and emotions before lowering her gaze down to the soil before her shoes. "I rather you leave than stay unwillingly."

"Stay unwillingly?" Her skin crawled at the loftiness of his voice, "has it occurred to you that I have been _staying_ unwillingly?"

"It...has." She closed her eyes concedingly. "Of course it has."

The girl knew, just not to what extent. She found out in the afternoon.

"What are you doing?" The purple-haired man asked, turning at the sound of scraping metal.

"Maybe I can get the village mechanic to fix it," she said in all honesty, trying to ingrain every detail of the alien ship into her mind for future description, "if not, I can consult those in the city when I get there."

Suseri continued to probe the contents of the spacecraft, her own curiosity heightening as she explored this foreign entity. She has never seen so much metal in her life before, and thus could not help but roam her palms all over the scorched, dented walls. Her body reached the head of the vehicle, a tiny chamber large enough to hold only one person. The various buttons and blown bulbs held matte reflections of her inquisitive pupils, and an odd, reclining chair creaked under her weight as she knelt on it to inspect the fractured bulk of glass that looked like an incredibly expansive and thick window.

Gently placing a hand on the cool transparent material, her eyes moved to the left where a gaping hole exposed her to the outside forestry.

_"Oh my God! Hang in there!" _

_Trying her best to ignore the burning pain that licked the sides of her face and hands, Suseri dug her torso into the gorge of the alien ship, clamped her fingers onto the limp heap of bloody flesh and heaved with all her might, the muscles in her arms screaming in agony. White-hot metal pierced her skin, but she knew that the physical pain it inflicted will be nothing compared to the emotional damage she would receive if she had failed to save this person's life._

Suseri blinked. Two months felt so long ago.

_"Can you hear me? Hello?" _

_She lightly slapped the paling face and pulled the lids of his only eye apart, studying the unmoving sphere within it. He was unconscious. She then directed her attention to the gushing laceration on his chest, fear gripping her own as she assessed the immense severity of the wound. This man needed immediate medical treatment, but how could she help with not even a roll of gauze in her current possession?_ _A threatening groan tore her flustered gaze up towards the flaming mass of metal that burned ten metres away. Gulping, she concluded that the only thing she could do was to stop or lessen the bleeding and somehow transport his body down to the village. But her efforts can only aid so much; everything now depended on his will to live. _

_Bringing her line of sight down to the head she cradled-_

She was violently jerked out of her recollection when a warning screech pierced her eardrums and her eyes shot up to see the wall of shattered glass falling down on her. Heart momentarily freezing, she realised too late that she had applied too much pressure when her hand leaned on the glass. The girl squeezed her eyes shut to brace the impact, but felt only a powerful force yanking her backwards and the soft landing on grass that came afterwards.

"Stupid, _stupid_ girl."

She heard the caustic voice scold as her line of sight focused on the face whose body cradled hers, blinking in shock at the furious, scathing olive eye that stabbed cold fear into her chest.

"There is_ nothing_ you can do," Takasugi growled menacingly and roughly threw the Amanto off him, standing up to tower over her with the iciest and most disdainful of glares. "Don't make things worse than they already are."

Tears would have sprouted at the brutality of his tone and intent, but Suseri had been so jaded and raw to emotional and psychological turmoil following the tumultuous recent developments that she simply swallowed the rising ache within her and forced her lips to edge up.

Shaken, she spoke in a voice barely above a whisper, "I thought you would let it crush me."

For a moment the Kiheitai leader went blank in the mind at her statement. Slowly, gradually and _very_ uncomfortably, confusion seeped in as to how and why he was so compelled to pull her out, even though he had been feeling so sore about his hindered departure from this Amanto village. It was irritating, it was baffling, and he hated it. Subconsciously, his hand moved for the long blade strapped to the side; an innate mechanism of his reception towards anything that upset him.

But then, _that_ feeling returned as he took in the lucid pools of blue and red that stared so beseechingly up into his olive. His first encountered it during their introduction when he drew his katana at her; that sense of conversancy when their eyes met. He initially brushed it off as resemblance to her grandmother, but it surfaced every now and then, and he continued his ignorance. It was only this afternoon, when he was telling her whatever he could remember about those literary skills that Shouyou-sensei had taught a long time ago, that the feeling was especially enforced. And now, this same emotion was impelling his hand to rise past the hilt of his sword and reach into his robes instead.

It made him tolerate her.

"Letting you die..." Defeated, he sighed as he started to walk away, pulling his kiseru out, "would be far too troublesome. Don't be so stupid again."

"Earthling-_ssi_," gathering her sense together at his leniency, Suseri pushed her leaden body up, pressing her hands to her chest although she knew he couldn't see it. "I truly am sorry that you cannot return home as fast as you'd like, or as fast as you'd want."

He paused.

"Until then," she hung her head compliantly, boring her eyes into the soil beneath her feet, "I hope you will bear with it."

...

"Silly girl. Don't apologise for something that wasn't your fault."

Her neck pulled back at the sound of his drawl, his usual lordly drawl, and watched with a growing sense of admiration and wonder as his back retreated further into the setting sun of the background, leaving trails of grey fumes from his pipe. It was then did it occur to Suseri how much she had underestimated the man. The man she had- no. The enigma she had saved. Everything she assumed about him, he proved her wrong. She knew he was murderous, and could be so frightening and unstable, but yet he gave her a sense of security she never knew.

He mesmerised her.

"I'm a bit tired," she heard him say. "Bring me somewhere nearby where I could rest."

"...Yes, Earthling-_ssi_."

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: I present to you... MORE DRAMA! The folklore that Takasugi told is an actual Japanese tale, and it was where I got Suseri's name from (okay you alr figured that out I'm sure...), and the phrase he said to her is an actual proverb too. Once again, as I progress with his and her feelings towards each other, I hope that Takasugi stays in character and that my writing isn't cheesy, confusing or wannabe-ish, if you get what I mean... ^^; It took me many rewrites and re-structuring for this chapter, especially the part where they go to the spacecraft. I originally wanted to put in an important scene as well, but figured that it would be too much for one chapter so... wait for the next one! ;P<strong>

**I have some time so... REVIEW REPLIES!**

**Ms. Anna Banana: *receives cookie* This one's up even faster! I get another one? ;)**

**nyankatze: Thank you so much! ^^ I'm glad that Suseri is well received! :')**

**franks-not-dead: Thank you for your appreciation of Suseri, my characterization of Takasugi and this little story of mine! :') Haha we love him cos' he's psycho XD**

**Tavris: Arigato! :D**

**drunk-terminator: Oh my, thank you kind mam! :') *passes nachos* Haha to be honest I adapted the crystal convo from sth my mom had said (must I make a disclaimer? LOL) She was polishing her Swarovski's one day when she suddenly told me how humans can only shine like them after going the tough formation process. At first, I was like "um, okay?" when I realised that it sounded quite profound, and really wanted to use it somewhere LOL **

**A big thank you to everybody who has read this! :* I foresee a great deal of work in my life for the next few weeks, so the next update may be... *cries***

**As usual, I really need and want feedback on this story of mine, so please, please, please, leave a review? :)**


	13. The Human Heart Comes to Know

Even through the hazy sheen of dirt she could see the splendour she wore.

Suseri softly traced fingers over the face whose eyes bore straight into hers, dusting her skin with a cold, metallic feel which did not come entirely from the reflective steel plane she had her hand on. Were those brows originally that severe? Did those lips curl in such a mirthless way? Have those orbs of blue and red always been so empty? She wondered how the girl- no, woman on the other side of the makeshift mirror could look so much and yet so little like her.

"Done," announced Mai as she tucked the final blonde strands into an elaborate up-do. "This is how you set your hair in our traditional style. Don't forget it."

"...Yes."

Perhaps it was an additional effect from the beautification she received. Aspiring concubines will only be needed to doll up in the palace right before the selection process given the considerable distances between the rural and main lands, and thus Suseri had just been shown how to do so in a manner characteristic of her village. As much as she admired the cascading pools of red embroidered silk and subtle rogue for gracing her with a sense of beauty she never actually thought she'd possess, the girl was unable to fully relish her new appearance without hesitance, much like how she could not decide if the burning candles painted the surrounding walls in shadows or light.

"So beautiful," her mother nodded before stifling her approval with a hand to conceal a trembling lip, "if only it were your true wedding, and not-... T-This-... Suseri, eomma is-... I, I am so sor-"

"Don't say it," Suseri shuffled to support the kneeling figure, the pain in her heart intensifying with her tears. She listlessly observed the sobbing female through semi-lidded eyes whilst stroking her back in comforting but vacant strokes, finally sighing in defeat after several minutes as she tore them away from the sunken, sallow, hollow face. The face of a woman who pitifully wallowed in torture mostly self-inflicted. The face of a woman who was in the end, her mother. "Don't blame yourself anymore. I want to do this, after all... Eomma."

Still, the last word lacked an affection which she doubted she could reclaim.

"My god, stop this racket and go to sleep!"

Their eyes flitted to the door behind, seeing their displeased senior frowning down with heavily bagged eyes and pursed lips. Suseri could have sworn that the harsh features broke for a moment when she registered her granddaughter's new look, but were repaired just as quickly with a blink of her eyes. "Why are you crying at this hour, Mai? You'll get more lines on your face!"

"Y-Yes, eomeonim..."

"And Suseri! You're too old to be playing dress up, put your own clothes back on!" The elderly woman scolded with unnecessary acidity, taking strides towards the pair to bend down and wipe the make-up off the youngest female's face with a cloth, "why do you have to look pretty to man the fields, huh? Don't forget that it's your turn tomorrow!"

"Eomeonim," Mai gasped at her rough actions and words, "a Palace guard will be fetching Suseri tomorrow!"

"Sleeping so late will cloud your mind," Halmeoni continued, apparently oblivious to the other woman's statement and the girl's wince, "you'll have to be attentive when differentiating the weeds from the crops, you know!"

"Eomeonim! Haven't you heard what I said?"

"And you'll have to look out for leeches. They'll suck you dry!"

"Halmeoni, please-" the blonde spluttered as she felt the grate of the fabric on her lips and cheeks, "please, s-stop!"

"Most importantly," the old doctor leant back to survey her granddaughter's clean (but red) face, "make sure that your seeds grow straight and will bend with neither rain nor wind."

If Suseri had not exercised her entire attention on scowling vehemently at the elder opposite, she would have noticed the pointed look she was sent. Using a palm to massage her tender skin, she pressed her weight on the soles of her feet to rise. "Halmeoni, you do not understand," she spoke disappointedly, her eyes narrowing with pity for their situation, "do you really want our last hours together to be tensed, unpleasant, loveless? Whether you accept it or not," her breath quivered, "I will be going to the Palace tomorrow."

"I do not understand, you said...?" Much to her chagrin, the old woman returned her glare with defiance in the form of a grim smile, as though she knew something she did not. "I wonder who is the one who truly does not understand."

"...Is that so." The younger Asato inhaled sharply and swallowed the rising burn in her throat as both pairs of blue and red maintained contact, which she broke with a hard blink and turn of her head to shrug the outer layers of her robes off her body. With a perfunctory nod in self-dismissal, she then strode out of the oppressive atmosphere and disappeared.

"Suseri, where are you going?" Mai called as she crawled to the door, then shot a look at her senior in a request for action, "eomeonim!"

"Leave her," Halmeoni waved a hand, unperturbed. "She's probably headed for Earthling-ssi's hut."

"Earthling-ssi...?" The concern on the raven-haired woman's face twisted awfully into anger and disbelief. "Why is my daughter meeting_ him_ at such a late hour, rather than spending time with her own family!"

"My dear, he is our guest and she did save him, you know." The geriatrician continued despite noting the growing disgust expressed by her daughter-in-law, "and they have been spending _quite_ some time together."

"Don't tell me," Mai practically spat her revolting question out, "she likes him?"

"Maybe. Maybe not."

"But he is a filthy alien _dog_!"

"Dog?"

The younger female repressed her comments when she heard the unsettlingly lofty tone of her voice, brows dipping further uncertainly as she watched the hunched figure stand up. Halmeoni sighed before directing a warning gaze to the woman sitting below her.

"Mai, you ought to know," she corrected almost fearfully, "he is a _wolf_."

* * *

><p><em><strong>Chapter Twelve:<strong>_

**The Human Heart Comes to Know**

* * *

><p>He exhaled a trail of smoke which framed his vision of the partial moon.<p>

"I suppose that you've recovered completely," Suseri stated as she ran her hands over his back and chest, fingers bumping at various scars and hardened skin on the alabaster canvas. "_Oppa_'s father will be returning from a nearby town with a qualified mechanic in a few days. He can check your vehicle-thing then."

She stepped away for him to drape his robes back on, then migrated to the other end of the hut where a slumbering boy laid spread-eagled. The blonde smiled as she gently stroked his tufty hair, silently lamenting that his cheerful, childish grin would be one of her most missed things from the village.

"That brat has been waiting for you here since evening to talk to you. He said he didn't want to go to your place because your mother seemed to always be in a bad mood."

"I guessed he would," she replied to the drawly explanation without moving her eyes away from Seoki's peaceful, unguarded face. "But I'll let him sleep."

"His snoring is noisy. Can't you bring him somewhere else?"

"He isn't even making a sound, Earthling-_ssi_."

"Hn."

The usual silence filled the gap between them before Takasugi made the effort to turn from his seat at the windowsill and look at the girl for the second time since her entrance. Now that he had actually scrutinized her as a male... "Ho, I'm honoured. Did Suseri-hime doll up to meet me?"

At this, she huffed despite a growing blush. "If it pleases you to think so."

She eyed him cautiously as his bare feet padded across to stop before her, then gasped in surprise when he suddenly grabbed her chin in a swooping motion. "W-What are you-"

He could feel the rising warmth of her skin as he guided her face from side to side in a manner that was all but gentle. Tilting his head as though to study her from another angle, he smirked and released his hold, -but not his gaze-, before straightening his back and raising the kiseru in his other hand. "I may have to retract some of my previous comments about your looks..."

The girl blinked owlishly in mild shock before ducking her head down to hide a very pleased smile and an incredibly intense blush. "I-I told you so."

"Maybe if you had bothered to look pretty from the start, my stay here would have been less unbearable."

The muscles in her cheeks stiffened and performed a twitch, "...can't you be nice on the account that it's my last night here?"

"Last night?" The olive eye appeared mystified for a moment. "Oh, that's right. You're leaving tomorrow."

She felt a wringing ache within her chest at the careless tone of his voice. "You forgot."

The samurai had enough tact to not supply her question, or rather, statement with an answer.

The blonde released another sigh through her nose. "Although I really dislike it sometimes, I guess your awful attitude will be something to miss, huh."

"I wonder," and that he truly did as her ever-imploring eyes bore into his, "if I can say the same to you."

Suseri had came prepared with many, many things that she wanted to tell the human to make their last session as interactive as possible. From thanking him for saving her and her village from the bandits to chastising his at-times bad temperament, she even considered confessing about the growing flutter in her stomach she felt whenever they met since their return from his spacecraft. Anything, as long as they could talk. But now, as he gazed down at her with his coldly distant, unrevealing eye, every single word she had in mind vanished, leaving only a conceding smile to offer.

"It's late," she forced, standing up. "I'll leave Seoki here."

Takasugi did not protest, being far too preoccupied with deciphering his own feelings towards the situation. Every emotion, be it positive or negative, seemed inappropriate for him to feel. Even if he'd settle for feeling nothing, it was wrong. And to aggravate him further, the girl had been looking insufferably expectant from the start. _How unnecessary this ridiculous fuss is,_ he thought wryly, since everything will soon be resolved once she leaves the village and his life.

He realised he was going in circles.

His olive orb followed after her as she paused at the door. "Earthling-_ssi_..."

"What?"

Her back remained unturned. "If I wanted you to, will you see me off tomorrow?"

He hesitated briefly, "depends."

"...I see." His answer, their interaction and the past half hour compelled Suseri to wonder if there was even a point in making this last visit. With one final sigh, she stepped out into the moonlight and closed the door behind. "Goodnight, Earthling-_ssi_."

...

The purple-haired man stood unreactive in his stance, allowing his gaze to linger on the shadowed wood.

"Was that really all you have to say to _noona_?"

He refused to admit that the boy startled him, especially with that uncharacteristically hostile tone. Nailing a glare on the sitting boy who stared up with large, reproachful eyes, he relit the bowl of his pipe before walking back to the window of his hut. "Weren't you asleep?"

"I have been awake since she started giving you your check-up."

"Really."

"Earthling-_ssi_, if you really had nothing to say to noona even after everything," Seoki fisted his flaying robes as his little body stood up, "then I have nothing to say to you too."

Takasugi heard the door creak open to let solitude in again.

* * *

><p>The masked official was very surprised.<p>

In all his years of escorting potential concubines to the mainland, he has witnessed farewells of all sorts. Some were celebratory as though commencing a marriage, and others were mournful as though holding a funeral, but all were nonetheless filled with people from every single household in the hamlet. However, in the duration of his journey to this village's plaza since he passed its gates, not a single soul has presented itself to him. His hand reached cautiously for the sabre strapped on his horse; did something happen within the village? That was no good; if he returned to the mainland without a girl, the King, or maybe even _that_ one of _those_ Four, will have his life in the most brutal fashion.

His worries were put to rest however, when his exposed eyes caught sight of a blonde figure in the centre of the complex, noting that her attire although casual, was distinguished and well-tailored, as well as the wooden trunk and bags surrounding her.

"Are you the offered concubine of the Hamada village?" He questioned in an unrelenting, deep voice as the hooves of his horse came to a stop.

"Yes, sir." The girl knelt respectfully, holding up sleeved, clasped hands before her bowed head.

"The finest maiden of your village."

"Yes."

He shot her a withering, unsatisfied glare, urging her to continue.

"...Sir."

He glanced around. "Where is your village head?"

"In his abode, sir."

"Your family?"

"Likewise, sir."

"You are," his eyes narrowed and his statement came out as a query, "alone?"

"Apparently so, sir."

"Do not," he growled warningly, "get smart with me, peasant girl."

"I would not dare, sir."

"Raise your chin."

She complied, and he promptly assessed her features. Considering how their culture considered black to be the ideal hair colour for beauty, it was uncommon for villages to offer girls with tresses in tones aside from it. Nonetheless, she proved pretty enough to exceed expectations, and thus accepted that she was indeed the finest maiden in this particular village. Even if she was otherwise, he had no patience to wait for the real one to surrender herself.

"Load your belongings," the official jerked a gloved hand to the small carriage his horse towed. "Make haste."

"...They are quite heavy, sir." She huffed slightly as her arms pulled at the large trunk.

His sneer was hidden by the cloth draped across it. "It is outside my concern. Such labour is usually done by the family of the concubine."

"Pardon me," her voice evidently soured, "sir."

He grunted and observed the last of her packing before yanking at reigns to direct his horse out of the queer village, taking with him the unhappiest concubine he ever fetched.

* * *

><p>As the wheels of the carriage rolled forwards, the cluster of straw thatches behind diminished both in size and familiarity.<p>

_Even if everyone had objected_, Suseri dug nails into sweating palms, _to let me leave in complete solitude like that_, her teeth clenched audibly, _without even a single 'goodbye' from anybody..._ The only farewell she neither expected nor wanted was from her mother (she fought back a surge of guilt at that), and now her shame, dejection and heartbreak intensified for having that stupid expectation of having at least three people sending her off. Where were Seoki, Nayu and Ryuki? More importantly, where were Halmeoni and Earthling-ssi...?

She assumed that the elders would hold the former three back, and found it her best interests to not conjure excuses for the latter two. Did it not matter to all of them that she was leaving the village, with the possibility of forever? _And to top it all off_, she dug frowning eyes into the back of the heavily cloaked official seated at the front of the carriage,_ I have to spend two weeks or even more with this dictator. _The masked man had been incredibly hostile and demeaning in his speech to her when he explained what was to come until her induction to the palace. Apparently, although it takes at least a week and a half to reach the mainland from her hometown, her village was one of the considerably closer ones. As such, she would have to wait another week or so even after her arrival at the city before the selection process could commence.

...And what was to come was only a fraction of the devastating quake in her heart. Suseri had given immense, sleep-depriving thought to how she was to go about rescuing her father, as well as the aftermath of her (likely) possible failure. But everything was dependant on the circumstances then, and hence she was helpless in planning her course of actions. In the end, she decided that she could only hope for the best and expect the worst.

Be that as it may... The girl closed her eyes to contain the burn of rising tears as her beloved village disappeared completely from her view. Were those meagre, pathetic conversations she had the previous night the last of the memories she could hold on to as an amulet through her journey hence forth? The coldness she received felt almost surreal, and she desired so much for it to be so.

A particularly heightened bump on the road caused the carriage to rise and fall in a violent jerk, displacing a small bag from its position from the top of the trunk.

Quite displeased that the official did not even turn to check if she was alright, the blonde girl moved cautiously from her seat to pick up the fallen satchel from the floor and tighten its loosened tie. It contained the ceremonial red scarf she was to use in the full dress, but what caught her attention was a small yellow stitch on the underside of it. Raising the long stretch of silk up to her eyes, she noticed that the ember thread was sutured over a slit, which felt much stiffer as compared to the rest of the soft fabric.

"What are you doing?" The official barked with a suspicious glare to the sitting girl.

"There is a hole in my scarf, sir. I have to mend it," she explained smoothly while digging out a sewing kit from another bag.

"Tsk," he scoffed and returned his sight to the front. "Shabby commoner."

Suseri carefully snipped the threads and pulled out a yellow talisman, unfolding it to reveal inked characters calling for one's safe return. With shocked eyes and a stilled heart, she realised that its incantations could only be written and issued by Hamada-nari as the spiritual representative of the entire village. Then, another road bump nudged a white package out of the bag lying beside her feet, and the girl picked it up with trembling hands to unwrap it as well.

She had to stifle a shocked gasp lest the official turn to probe. A_ norigae_ dangled from her fingers, and her mouth slackened at the exquisite beauty it possessed; unlike other charms, this one had thin, golden chains in place of strings, with sapphire and ruby studs embedded in its intricately knotted body. Its weight affirmed the authenticity of its material composition, and Suseri was overcome with fascination and confusion as to how a peasant village could possibly own such a treasure.

A note fluttered down from the packaging, which she raised to her crying eyes with one hand.

_Just a little trinket to help you catch the King's attention. _

_Make sure you give it back to me in one piece yourself. It's the only gold I own, you know._

_Remember my words, _  
><em>Halmeoni.<em>

* * *

><p>The moment the tiny carriage had disappeared after the first hill, residents of the Hamada village slowly retired to the plaza from their homes, congregating around the weeping doctor who knelt on the ground that last graced her granddaughter's presence. The shrunken, bearded village head stooped to place a consoling hand on her quivering back, despite knowing that no words of his can quell her bereavement at that moment. "There, there. Suseri is a smart girl. She'll make it through and come back with Dan."<p>

Halmeoni could only respond with choked nods, lamenting how lonely and hurt her granddaughter must have felt as she entered the carriage, but acknowledged it a necessary evil as she, and everybody else, knew that the attendance of any villager will shake her resolve to leave with the official. She could only pray that the presence of that _norigae _and its history could provide enough immunity for the girl.

Beside her, Seoki bawled as hard as he did on the day he lost his parents to the bear.

_I am so sorry, Dan, Mai, Suseri_, the elderly woman beseeched in her heart, body still too feeble to stand under the weight of her conscience, _I should have known that things will come to this. _

* * *

><p>Nayu buried her tearful face into the broad chest of Ryuki, who reacted with a squeeze on her shoulders as they watched the moving speck in the distance from their spot at a hill.<p>

"Maybe I s-shouldn't have told Hamada-nari about what I-I heard Suseri said to her mother the other night about h-her father," she sobbed, immensely guilty for having eavesdropped when she approached their house a week before, even though it was by accident.

"It's not your fault," the brunette assured sadly, "everybody else would have realised that there was a deeper, more complicated reason for Suseri's sudden need to go to the Palace. Now, the best we can do is to pray for her and Dan-ssi's safe return."

As she raised her eyes to meet his, they both agreed in their hearts and minds, that despite their grief and the misfortune of the situation, they had to thank the medic for allowing them the chance to stay as they were together.

* * *

><p>Things were catastrophic for Mai.<p>

She had been fully prepared to step into the carriage with her daughter under the excuse of returning to the palace after a brief visit to her hometown (she even polished her Palace Worker's seal for it), but after she took a sip of her morning drink, she was overcome with an uncontrollable wave of dizziness. Before she knew it, she awoke and clambered to the window just in time to see the imperial sedan vanish behind a hill.

Suseri, she realised when she keeled over to retch the contents of her stomach, had poisoned her to deter her from going to the Palace, with effects able to last for a week just to ensure that she would not follow after her.

She should have known.

And so now, completely void of options and pride, she slammed her raven head onto the ground outside a certain foreigner's hut, right before his sandaled feet.

"Please, please, please, I beg of you," the soil was soaked with her endless tears, "Suseri cannot possibly enter the Palace alone without allies. It is far too dangerous!"

Takasugi blew a steady stream of smoke, not the least bit moved. "So?"

"So please, follow after her, keep her safe at least until she finds her father within that fortress!"

"Ridiculous."

Mai also should have known better than to stoop to the lowest level of begging an alien for help. His stance simply cemented her conviction that all foreigners were unfeeling beasts, but he was a useful beast she needed on her side. Especially from the descriptions that all the other villagers have given of him, in addition to her own experience with that unsettling aura he emanated.

"The city holds the only Terminal in the whole of Asa, and is filled with..._established_ individuals," she started after a substantial silence, her head still bowed. "I reckon that it is in your best interests to head there as well."

The olive eye gleamed in derision. "You expect me to fall for that."

"Do you honestly think that the two-bit mechanic who will be coming can fix your spacecraft?" The Asato spoke pointedly. "I've seen the level of damage it took, and I am sure you know it too that the only way for you to leave this planet is through the city."

"Then that I can achieve," he replied confidently, "without meddling with your daughter."

"Do you know your way to the city?" Her yellow and green eyes rose defiantly, taking note of how his hand inched towards the sword on his hip at her provocation. "Even if you threaten my life, or anybody else's for that matter, you shall not know unless you agree to escort Suseri."

Despite the increasing irritation within, the Kiheitai leader was amused at the gall of this woman, even after she had practically treated him like dirt the past weeks. She really is the mother of that silly girl.

Mai took his silence as a signal for her to continue, the instinct that he was not entirely unwilling giving her courage. "The official holds a map to the city. I will direct you to a route through the mountains which will allow you an opportunity to intercept the carriage, and once you have done that..." she faltered for a moment, "dispose of the official and take his attire. Members of the Imperial Assembly wear masks to distinguish themselves from the common folk, as though they are not worthy enough to see their faces. What stupidity; you will then be able to enter the palace without question."

She paused for a moment to think through any loopholes he might find. "In the event that you decided to just kill both the official and my daughter to make a run for it, let me inform you that all maps are written and drawn in our language. You will not understand it without help."

_This woman has certainly thought it through even in such a condition_, Takasugi commended with a growing smirk, the deranged glint in his eye rising in intensity as he noticed her profuse sweat and pasty complexion, both of which indicated an ill body. _That silly girl must have given something to her own mother,_ he assumed with approval.

"Please," the woman implored for the final time, arching her back and touching her head to the dirt once again, "help Suseri."

As he sauntered away with a swish of his robes and a darkly excited smile, Mai received all the confirmation she needed to proceed in packing the necessities for his journey.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: After much, much rewrites and headaches, I bring you the conclusion of this story... arc. *gets shot* I hope that I've explained everything that needed to be explained, and appropriately leave out the correct issues that will be developed in the future (tbh I haven't really thought in detail about what Suseri's gonna do once she enters the Palace, but that will be a loooong time later, so no worries! ^^') ANYWAY! So how was this chapter? Takasugi still in character? Emotions properly and plausibly conveyed? Writing too sappy? Suseri becoming a Mary Sueseri? <strong>

**And I realised that I've been focusing too much on her. I need opinions on the other characters as well! I think that the things that Seoki says are pretty lame... *hides under the excuse that he's a kid*. Halmeoni is more important to this story than you think she would be. I like Mai! She's...interesting (though I feel that some of you may not like her?) I am aware that this fic is one driven by OCs, and I really hope that readers do not mind it! Please bear with it until Takasugi returns to Earth, which won't actually happen until the end of this story... OTL. AHEM BE THAT AS IT MAY... I need feedback! You can PM me if you want, or just drop a review, ANYTHING! **

**And you can google what a norigae is! XP**

**And I forgot to mention/disclaim that I took a quote from Bruce Lee and placed it in the chapter before this. Did you spot it? And this chapter also has a small snippet taken from Alphaville's (not 1D's okay) Forever Young. Did you spot that too? ^^ **

**Once again, readers, followers, favouriters and reviewers have my utmost gratitude. :') Really, thank you so much for following this story up till now! It's only in its first quarter/third, so I look forward to presenting to you guys more of this fic! :) (I mean, if you all want it that is...)**

**luvJesusinHeavn: DAMN that's inconvenient! I mean if you use your iPod when commuting or when you're bored or something! Hope your new charger lasts! XD Thank you so much for your review, and appreciation for Suseri! :') I eagerly present Chapter 13, then! :D**

**Ms. Anna Banana: Hmmm can I have a Takasugi-flavoured one? 8D Haha yeah I was quite afraid of giving the Asato heterochromia since it's considered a Mary Sue trait, but I find it really cool and so I gave in to temptation HAHA! Ohhhh, yes, how I shamelessly wish this is canon too Thank you once again for your support! :') But I feel that I haven't fleshed her out enough yet... haha! ^^'**

**drunk-terminator: Oh man, but I'm so afraid that I'll get his character wrong as I progress further into their relationship! I'll try my best to bring out his affections (in the future) in the most Takasugi-way I can. ^^b Yes the courtship is always the best part, and Takasugi's so impenetrable (um, wrong word to use?) so it's gonna take very long before any substantial feelings can come out on his behalf! Oh jeez, I'm glad that Suseri has a fan XD Haha if you wanna know what happens to her, stay tuned! ;D And um, about that important scene... I postponed it because it would sit odd here ^^' *begs for forgiveness***

**Guest: Thank you! :D**

**Strawwwberrylollipop: Woah, thank you so much for your compliments! :') Glad to know that I'm on the right track! Yeah Suseri is simple, yet not simple (BIPOLAR!) and yes I made her strong only in the mind and will because Gintama has too many ferocious girls (if you get what I mean!) and she is, after all, a village girl. Haha glad you noticed it because Takasugi himself doesn't know that he's following her around! XD Oh no! Don't get me wrong I didn't create Asa's culture! It's strongly based off the Korean culture, particularly ancient Korea. But I admit that I will add in my own elements (you'll see when she reaches the city) to facilitate writing. Once again, thank you so much for taking the time to give me your lengthy review! :)**

**Hibakaeru: Thank you so much! :) Man then does that mean that there were instances of OOC-ness? :( I'll try my best to avoid that! And rest assured I will never abandon this story! :)**

**I have a major life-determining exam coming, so don't expect the next chapter to be up until December... I am really so sorry! I will make it up with better writing! Since I'll be starting on a new 'arc' in the next chapter, take it as a break? Like how the Gintama anime is on break now *grumbles***

**See you then! :)**


	14. Apology

Dear readers,

I am very aware of my previous promise to never abandon any of my stories, but it was made during a time when I still had a naïve view on life management and whatnots; adulthood has saddled me with responsibilities and workloads heavier than I could have imagined (I'm fine, if you're wondering, just very heckled). I am truly, deeply and forever remorseful to admit that I no longer have the time and energy to continue any of my stories, and even if by some miracle I do, they will not see a definite ending for the pace that they will be written at will be tortuously slow.

However, to salvage whatever shred that's left of the promise, I have found somebody who will be adopting The Human Heart. YokohamaBeans (a link to her profile is up on mine) is a close online-friend I met on this site, and an amazing writer who shares a similar style with me and possesses writing capabilities far greater than I can ever have. I have long confided in her my plans to quit, and after a lengthy discussion, she has very kindly and magnanimously agreed to adopt this story of mine. I have sent her a very, very, very detailed synopsis of The Human Heart and what I had in store for it, and she has agreed to stick by the plans. However, in the end, it is up to her to tweak it in whatever what she wants to, and I have full trust in the direction she will take it in. Please do support her in this! You can read her stories for a better understanding of her writing, of which I guarantee you is much, much better than mine.

Once again, I am so sorry to let you all down with this 'update'. YokohamaBeans will be rewriting everything up till where I have stopped before continuing it, so it can take some time. If you are unable to wait till then (or for any other reason), you can PM me and I will send you the detailed synopsis/draft/plan that I have sent YokohamaBeans. This however, is strongly discouraged as the plan will be bland and void of emotions/imagery/writing techniques that bring stories to life, and it will be a major, major, major spoiler.

I truly apologise for this, and I wish you all the best in life.

Yours regretfully,  
>Odangocha<p> 


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